Name-a-Day Calendar, October 10: VCU Rams
Page 338 of 365
Chosen in: 1963
Chosen by: Athletics director Ed Allen
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) was created in 1968 via a merger between two previously unrelated institutions: the Richmond Professional Institute (RPI) founded in 1917 and the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) that traces its roots all the way back to 1838. VCU retained RPI’s athletics department in the merger, so this piece will highlight RPI’s history prior to 1968.
RPI became affiliated with the College of William & Mary in 1925 and began playing sports in 1931. Unusually, because the school’s enrollment was mostly women at the time, their first team was a women’s field hockey squad. They began play with no official nickname.
After World War II, men nationwide sought higher education following their military service, and they were able to obtain it through the G.I. Bill. Male enrollment at RPI spiked from 30 in 1940 to 805 in 1947, 650 of whom were veterans. A men’s basketball team formed in 1946.
Two years later, the student body decided it was high time they select a mascot, so they held a student body vote and the winner was “Green Devils”. The green half came from their affiliation, but it’s unknown where or whom the “devil” half came from.
Then, in 1962, RPI separated from William & Mary and became an independent institution. Resultantly, they decided to move away from William & Mary’s green and gold color scheme,1 rendering the “Green Devils” nickname nonsensical. The school thus abandoned it but did not name a replacement for the 1962-63 school year.
In 1963, athletics director Ed Allen took it upon himself to select the new identity. Because he was an alumnus of the University of Rhode Island, he simply adopted their mascot, the ram. The RPI Rams played for five seasons before the merger with MCV, at which point they became the VCU Rams we know today.
VCU’s mascot is a costumed ram named Rodney.
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They originally switched to Union blue and Confederate gray as recommended by the School of Art, who thought it an appropriate way to highlight Richmond’s status as a bridge between the North and the South. Could have been worse, I guess.
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