Name-a-Day Calendar, November 15: American Eagles
Day 9 of 365
Chosen in: 1927
Chosen by: An unspecified writer for the Eagle student newspaper
In 1927, just as American University’s athletics programs were being formed, a writer for the Eagle student newspaper (whose name seems to have been lost to time) lamented that the school had yet to declare a mascot. They suggested the eagle because “it has always been regarded as a symbol of royalty and has the proverbial distinction of being the king of birds … symbolic of strength, endurance, long life, lofty flight, powerful in fight, and keen vision”.
Given that the university bears America’s name and is located in its capital, the suggestion to use a national symbol as its mascot was a slam dunk.1 The yearbook referred to American’s basketball team as the Eagles that year and usage of the name to refer to the school’s sports teams became commonplace over the next few years.
Learn more about the history of the American Eagles mascot by watching this video from the Patriot League.
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I’d go as far as to call it one of the most glaringly obvious nickname choices in the history of sports. It would seem exceptionally wrong to me if they were called anything else: the American Wildcats, the American Bulldogs, even another thematically appropriate name like the American Presidents.