Name-a-Day Calendar, October 23: Western Illinois Leathernecks

Page 351 of 365

Chosen in: 1927

Chosen by: Athletics director Ray Hanson

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Today’s Western Illinois University was founded as a normal school in 1899. They began playing football in 1903 and basketball (men’s and women’s) in 1904. Their first teams bore no official nickname, but by the 1920s, all teams were known as the Fighting Teachers.

In 1926, the school tabbed Ray “Rock” Hanson as their athletics director and head coach of all major men’s sports. A decade prior, Hanson had enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he served through World War I. Marines are often known as “Leathernecks”, owing to an actual leather neckpiece members wore until 1872, the original purpose of which was to protect against swords.

Hanson took many cues from his military service in running the Western Illinois athletics department, and he wanted that to include the “Leathernecks” nickname. In 1927, he asked the Department of the Navy, which houses the Marine Corps, for their blessing in using the nickname for his teams. As a thank-you for his service, they said yes. The men’s teams have been known as the Leathernecks ever since. According to the university, they’re the only non-military-affiliated school in the country to use a military-based athletics nickname.

As for the women’s teams, they were soon reduced to intramural competition only, and they remained that way until the passage of Title IX in 1972. Women’s intercollegiate athletics gradually grew back into a full-scale operation over the remainder of the 1970s, but the university didn’t want to call them the Leathernecks. As a result, they held a contest in 1977 to select a different nickname, soliciting suggestions throughout all of McDonough County. The contest gained more than 100 entries. Women’s athletes and coaches voted for their favorite and the winner was “Westerwinds”. This became the official women’s athletics nickname at Western Illinois until the university reversed course in 2009 and decided to call them the Leathernecks also.

Since 1959, Western Illinois has represented itself with a live bulldog, named Colonel Rock in honor of Ray Hanson. As far as I can tell, bulldogs had no prior association with the word “leatherneck”, but the association is obvious: they’re rough and tough, just like the Marines.

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