Name-a-Day Calendar, May 13: New Mexico Lobos
Page 188 of 365
Chosen in: 1920
Chosen by: U.N.M. Weekly editor and football student manager George S. Bryan
The University of New Mexico was established in 1889 and began playing football in 1892. In the school’s infancy, it felt the need to distinguish its teams from the local prep schools, so it called its teams the “University Boys” and the “Varsities”. Also in the school’s early days, its student newspaper was weekly, not daily, so it was originally named U.N.M. Weekly.
By the mid-1910s, the community wanted an identity with a little more flair, which in turn would provide a better nickname for the sports teams and a better title for the newspaper. In 1917, the paper solicited suggestions from the student body on how it should rename itself. Many of these suggestions—namely “Ki-yo-te”, “The Rattler”, and “The Sand Devil”—might possibly have doubled as new sporting mascots if they were selected, but none of them were. In fact, no consensus came from this solicitation and the paper remained U.N.M. Weekly.
However, the issue never left, and the longer the school went without an official mascot, the more pressing it became. On September 22, 1920, the Student Council held a special meeting to discuss mascot possibilities. Present at this meeting was George S. Bryan, a sophomore who was both the editor of what was still called U.N.M. Weekly and a student manager of the football team. He suggested the mascot be a wolf and the teams be called the Lobos: the Spanish word for “wolf”.
The Student Council loved this suggestion and made it pretty much official, effective immediately. The October 1, 1920, issue of U.N.M. Weekly talked up the nickname: “The Lobo is respected for his cunning, feared for his prowess, and is the leader of the pack.” That paper would be renamed The Weekly Lobo not long afterwards.1
The nickname doesn’t just sound cool; it’s also a fitting name for a New Mexico institution. Gray wolves are native to western New Mexico, and the Spanish moniker is appropriate for a school officially classified as a Hispanic-serving institution.
The University of New Mexico has since lived a wild history of lobo mascots, both live and costumed.
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This paper still exists as The Daily Lobo, though “The Online Lobo” might be a more apt name.