Name-a-Day Calendar, October 18: Washington Huskies

Page 346 of 365

Chosen in: 1922

Chosen by: A committee of the Associated Students of the University of Washington

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The Territorial University of Washington was founded in 1861. The school changed its name to the University of Washington when the territory gained statehood in 1889. Coincidentally, the Washington football team¹ debuted the same year.

Washington’s first sports teams were most often called by their “Purple and Gold” school colors, though the university claims they were briefly represented by a Native American mascot and a Viking mascot at some separate points before 1920.

In 1920, the Associated Students of the University of Washington (ASUW) held a student body vote to determine their first true mascot, and the winner was the “Sundodger”. This novel mascot, originally drawn as a man holding an umbrella, was originally conceived as a play on the rainy weather in Seattle, the city in which the university is located. But a lot of locals took umbrage with this and it wasn’t long before Washington was looking for a new mascot all over again.

In 1922, ASUW formed a committee to determine the new mascot, and that committee decided on the Husky. Their logic, according to the university, was that “it was easy to cartoon, a fitting name for an athletic team, and is short and easy to use in newspaper headlines”, as well as that “the Husky captured the true spirit of the Northwest because Seattle was recognized as the ‘Gateway to the Alaskan frontier’”.

Washington debuted a live Husky mascot in February 1922 and they’re still represented by one over a century later. The current mascot is an Alaskan Malamute named Dubs II. Washington chose the Alaskan Malamute breed of Husky specifically because “it is the largest and strongest of all Husky breeds”.

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1. Pun wasn’t intended when I wrote this but I did chuckle at it a little bit.