Name-a-Day Calendar, March 8: Iona Gaels

Page 122 of 365

Chosen in: 1940

Chosen by: School administration

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The origin story of what is now Iona University is very Irish Catholic. The school was founded in 1940 by several members of the Congregation of Christian Brothers (often known as the Irish Christian Brothers) who taught at local high schools. They named it after Iona Abbey, a popular and deeply historic Christian monastery on the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland.

Iona has played men’s basketball since the very beginning, forming their team in 1940. Their teams were immediately christened the Gaels, a Gael being anyone of the Gaelic ancestry that originated in Ireland in the Middle Ages.

The school uses a costumed Gael mascot named Killian. He’s pretty spooky.

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