Name-a-Day Calendar, November 26: Baylor Bears
Page 20 of 365
Chosen in: 1914
Chosen by: Student Doyle Thrailkill in a pick-the-mascot contest
Baylor University’s first intercollegiate athletic competition came when they formed a football team in 1899. They played their first 15 years without an official nickname or mascot before university president Samuel Palmer Brooks held a contest to select one. A former student chipped in by offering a $5 gold piece to whoever submitted the winning entry.1
Held in early December 1914, the contest received 24 entries, most of them animals,2 but “Bears” won by a mile, receiving 206 out of a possible 406 votes. The winning entry, submitted by student Doyle Thrailkill, became the school’s official athletic identity immediately.
Baylor would begin using live bear mascots in 1920, a tradition that continues to this day. Learn more about the history of these bears here.
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$148.40 in 2022 dollars…is this story sounding familiar to you at all, by the way?
Some rejects: “Buffaloes”, “Antelopes”, “Frogs”, “Ferrets”