Name-a-Day Calendar, March 27: Lindenwood Lions

Page 141 of 365

Chosen in: 1970

Chosen by: Unknown, but probably school administration

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Lindenwood University is new to Division I, but calling it “new” to anything seems wrong. Located in St. Charles, Missouri, the school was originally founded as the Lindenwood School for Girls all the way back in 1832, making it the second oldest institution of higher education west of the Mississippi River, behind only Saint Louis University.¹

Intercollegiate athletics began in the mid-20th century, but the school didn’t consider them much of a priority. From what I can tell, the teams didn’t even have a nickname, as the school’s print sources always just called them “the basketball team” or “the soccer team”.

In 1969, the school fundamentally changed forever as, after 137 years of operation, it decided to begin accepting men…kinda. See, Lindenwood was under the misconception that it would lose its charter if it suddenly began accepting men. This would cause them to lose some privileges normally reserved for state schools, which they obviously didn’t want, so they circumvented this by starting a completely new college just for men and naming it — I kid you not — Lindenwood II.

Lindenwood II began intercollegiate athletics in 1970, once they’d built up a bit more of a roster of men eligible to compete, and it was then that the sports teams for both schools finally received a nickname. Without any fanfare, in the October 23, 1970, issue of The Ibis student newspaper, a game story for the soccer team read: “The Lions (newly chosen nickname for LC II’s athletic squads) of Lindenwood dropped a close decision to Westminster on Saturday, October 17”.

It’s not clear who selected this nickname, how, or why, but given how little attention this received, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that school administrators (or perhaps the athletic department) picked the nickname without any input from the student body.

At some point in the 1970s, Lindenwood was informed that they could accept men to their college and still keep their charter, so Lindenwood II was disbanded in 1979 and its student body was folded into that of the original Lindenwood College.

Today, Lindenwood uses a costumed Lion mascot named Leo. In 2013, it had the honor of competing in a mascot contest against several other Greater St. Louis mascots (and also Chuck E. Cheese). It did not win.

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1. Founded as Saint Louis Academy in 1818