Chosen in: 1937-ish
Chosen by: We don’t know, but we do know where they got it from
What is now Austin Peay State University was founded as the Austin Peay Normal School, a two-year teachers’ college, in 1927. Being located in Clarksville, Tennessee, the school was named for the state’s then-current governor. Their sports teams played their first decade or so alternating between being called the Normalites and the Warriors, though these appear to have been unofficial nicknames.
The school claims that the “Governors” nickname came to be “around 1937” in honor of Governor Peay, who had since passed away. I couldn’t find any source confirming (or even speculating on) who coined the name.
Read a short primer on the life and legacy of Austin Peay here.
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