Name-a-Day Calendar, October 16: Wagner Seahawks
Page 344 of 365
Chosen in: 1947
Chosen by: Student body vote in a nickname contest
Wagner College was founded in Rochester, New York, in 1883 and moved to Staten Island in 1918. To the best of my knowledge, intercollegiate athletic competition began just after the move with the debut of their men’s basketball team in 1920.
Their new campus was situated atop Grymes Hill, among the highest points on Staten Island, so their first teams were primarily known as the Hilltoppers, though being called by their “Green and White” school colors was also common. The football team debuted in 1927 and was sometimes called the Green Wave.
By 1947, these nicknames were considered unfitting, and the college’s Student Association sponsored a student body contest to submit a more permanent one for all sports. The competition, announced in The Wagnerian student newspaper on October 24 of that year, was said to have come with some prize, but the Student Association didn’t specify what. The only true restriction on submissions was that “the nickname should be the name of some object or thing suitable for picturization on shields, banners, pennants, and shirts”.
At a special meeting of students during chapel on November 5, four finalists emerged. Present students picked between Eagles, Green Dragons, Pandas, and Sea Hawks. By an apparent “overwhelming majority”, the winner was “Sea Hawks”, which was shortened to the one-word “Seahawks” almost immediately. In their announcement of the winner on November 14, The Wagnerian did not note who submitted the winning nickname or what prize the Student Association came up with.
Wagner’s current mascot is a costumed seahawk known simply as The Seahawk. The costume just got a refresh last year.
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