Name-a-Day Calendar, March 7: Indiana State Sycamores

Page 121 of 365

Chosen in: 1922

Chosen by: Student body vote

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What is now Indiana State University was founded as a normal school in 1865 and began playing intercollegiate sports in 1896. Their first teams had no official nickname, but eventually, for lack of a better term, the press began to call them the Fighting Teachers. This persisted until 1921, when the school held a contest to pick a true identity.

The winner of the contest, announced in January 1922, was “Sycamores”, though the name behind the nickname has been lost to time. The school’s teams have been known as the Sycamores ever since (and sometimes unofficially as the Fighting Trees).

Despite having a nickname that had nothing to do with Native Americans, Indiana State used two Native American mascots from 1969-1989 before putting a stop to it and eventually replacing them with their current mascot: the genderless, speciesless Sycamore Sam.

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