Name-a-Day Calendar, November 2: Xavier Musketeers

Page 361 of 365

Chosen in: 1925

Chosen by: Board of Trustees member Reverend Francis J. Finn

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Xavier University’s roots date back to 1831, when it was founded as the Athenaeum. It became St. Xavier College in 1840 and began playing intercollegiate sports in 1901, beginning with a now-defunct football team. St. Xavier’s first sports teams were usually known as the Saints, a nickname that came naturally to the school with a saintly name and which eventually grew to become quasi-official.

This changed in 1925, when Board of Trustees member Reverend Francis J. Finn suggested that the school adopt the musketeer as their mascot to highlight their “all for one, one for all” mentality. The university notes that Rev. Finn was inspired by Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan, an actual French musketeer in the 17th century, and that he felt d’Artagnan represented Xavier’s historical ties to France: the first priest to navigate the Ohio River to Cincinnati was a French Canadian, many of the first students at the school were Frenchmen¹ from Louisiana, and the first Jesuit priest of the school was from French-speaking Belgium.

The nickname stuck, even after the school became Xavier University in 1930. A costumed version of d’Artagnan would eventually become the school mascot, though it didn’t debut until 1965. Xavier also represents themselves with some blue blob thing for reasons I don’t feel like explaining.

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1. Xavier did not admit women at all until 1914 and was not fully coeducational until 1969, so it was all men at this time.