Name-a-Day Calendar, May 26: North Florida Ospreys

Page 201 of 365

Chosen in: 1979

Chosen by: Faculty member Dr. Ray Bowman via student body vote

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The University of North Florida first opened in 1972 as an upper division college (a two-year college meant for undergraduate juniors and seniors) in Jacksonville. Because its curriculum was aimed at upperclassmen, North Florida conferred a lot of degrees abnormally quickly; by 1978, they already had more local alumni than every university in the state except the University of Florida.

In October 1978, the North Florida alumni newsletter was set to run a story boasting about this fact, but they needed some artwork. Editor Dorreen Daly wanted to represent each school with their mascot, but she couldn’t do that because North Florida didn’t actually have a mascot.

The closest they’d gotten was earlier that year, during a somewhat satirical series of back-and-forth letters to the editor about this very subject between two faculty members. Department of Mathematical Sciences chairman Dr. Bill Caldwell favored the armadillo, while Department of Natural Sciences faculty member Dr. Ray Bowman preferred the manatee. This led to the publication of a cartoon depicting Dr. Caldwell as an armadillo named Olli Damra fighting Dr. Bowman as a manatee named E. E. Tanam.

Daly, wanting to cause problems on purpose, unilaterally chose to represent North Florida as an armadillo. This led to a real debate on what the school’s actual mascot should be. Along with armadillos and manatees, several other animals had a decent backing, including coots, seagulls, sharks, and tadpoles. Some thought the human mariner should be the mascot, while yet others suggested the pinecone.

This all came to a head in April 1979, when the Student Government Organization put the mascot debate up for a vote. The armadillo, manatee, and seagull were considered the three primary contenders. Dr. Bowman wasn’t having this: the armadillo and the manatee were originally conceived as jokes and the seagull, he thought, was a filthy bird that did not deserve to represent the university. He conducted a little research and determined that the mascot should be the osprey, a much more graceful bird that was abundant in northern Florida.

Dr. Bowman launched a write-in campaign for the osprey as North Florida’s official mascot and he ended up getting his wish. The osprey won the initial election with 47% of the vote, then won a runoff between the top few candidates. It was officially installed as North Florida’s mascot in November 1979.

North Florida currently has one costumed osprey mascot, a male named Ozzie. From 1994 through the mid-aughts, it also had a costumed female osprey named Harriet, but she’s been retired for nearly two decades. Here’s a short history of Ozzie and Harriet.

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