Name-a-Day Calendar, May 4: Morehead State Eagles
Page 179 of 365
Chosen in: 1926
Chosen by: Peaches Ellis
The school we now know as Morehead State University took on its current form in 1922, when the Commonwealth of Kentucky took control of a private normal school that had been operating since 1887 in Morehead State’s current location. Shortly after the school became public, it founded a few sports teams, but they needed an identity.
In 1926, local businessman J.M. Clayton sponsored a community-wide contest to select a nickname for the school’s teams, offering a $101 prize to the winner. I couldn’t find information on any of the losing entries, but the winner was submitted by a young woman named Peaches Ellis: she suggested “Bald Eagles”.
Within a decade “Bald Eagles” was routinely shortened to “Eagles” for simplicity’s sake, and Morehead State’s teams have been known as the Eagles ever since.
Since 1993, Morehead State sporting events have enjoyed the presence of a costumed eagle mascot named Beaker.
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