Name-a-Day Calendar, October 2: Utah State Aggies
Page 330 of 365
Chosen in: 1892, technically
Chosen by: It was natural shorthand for most agricultural schools at the time
The Agricultural College of Utah was founded as then-Utah Territory’s land-grant institution in 1888. They began playing intercollegiate sports in 1892, a football team first representing them. Though they had no mascot or official athletics nickname for several decades, they—like most other agricultural schools at the time—were commonly referred to as the Aggies simply because it was shorter and catchier than “Agriculturalists”.
The school became known as the Utah State Agricultural College in 1928 and then as Utah State University in 1957 following a curricular expansion well beyond just agriculture. Their teams were still known as the Aggies (or sometimes the Farmers), and by this point it was on pretty much an official basis.
Beginning in 1969, a little over a decade after Utah State had officially shed the “Agricultural” identity academically, a group of students campaigned to make the same shift athletically. They mostly wanted any nickname that wasn’t “Aggies”, but they did submit one to the university for consideration: “Highlanders”. This campaign failed spectacularly, as the wide majority of students and alumni still enjoyed being called the Aggies despite the diminished academic relevance.
Harmless as it was, the identity stuck, and it’s continued to represent Utah State to this day. The university mascot is a costumed bull named Big Blue.
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