Name-a-Day Calendar, May 16: Niagara Purple Eagles

Page 191 of 365

Chosen in: 1897

Chosen by: School administration

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In 1856, the Vincentian Fathers founded Our Lady of Angels Seminary in Buffalo. The next year, they moved the organization to a plot of land on Monteagle Ridge, just north of the city of Niagara Falls, New York, and established a college to complement the seminary, changing their name to The College and Seminary of Our Lady of Angels in the process.

Administration would then change the school’s name to the far less unwieldy Niagara University in 1883. The school’s official seal features an eagle due to the campus’ location on Monteagle Ridge.

Niagara began playing football in 1897. The school initially wanted to call its teams the Eagles, taking inspiration from the seal, but they figured that was too boring, so they added the school’s primary color, purple, at the beginning: they’d be the Purple Eagles. This has remained the team’s identity to this day.

Niagara’s purple eagle mascot is named Monte, after Monteagle Ridge, and he wears #56 for the year 1856, when the school was established.

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