Name-a-Day Calendar, October 3: Utah Tech Trailblazers

Page 331 of 365

Chosen in: 2016

Chosen by: A university committee selecting between options from third-party firm Love Communications

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It’s 1911. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints establishes an institution for higher education in the burgeoning Dixie region of southwestern Utah. The region’s inhabitants named it this way on account of its supposed resemblance to the American South: warm weather, cotton crops, and all (not to mention a little historical negationism). The school is originally named St. George Stake Academy after the city in which it operates, but changes its name to Dixie Academy two years later to match the branding of the rest of the region.

The school shifts from being a teachers’ academy to being a broader junior college in 1923, changing its name to Dixie Junior College in the process. Three years later, intercollegiate athletics begin in earnest as a men’s basketball team takes the court. This team is originally known as the Flyers, and this branding lasts until after World War II. In 1951, the athletics department changes the nickname to “Rebels”, completing the school’s Southern identity.

Somewhat ridiculously for a school that, once again, is located in western Utah, Dixie introduces a Confederate soldier mascot in 1956 and begins flying the Confederate flag at sporting events in 1960. As the school continues to grow and evolve, becoming Dixie College in 1970 and then the four-year Dixie State College in 2000, the Confederate identity remains constant. They don’t stop flying the flag until 1993. They don’t say goodbye to the Confederate soldier mascot until 2005.

It’s the second term of the second Bush administration and some loser from 1863 is still representing a public university of a state that didn’t even exist at the time. Not even a famous loser like Lee or Jackson. Just some guy.

In 2007, two years after Dixie State finally nixes the obviously racist symbol after tons of backlash, they go a step further and eliminate the “Rebels” nickname entirely. They play without a nickname for two more years before a selection committee considers three replacement identities—Red Devils, Red Hawks, and Red Storm—and chooses “Red Storm”. A bull mascot, Big Dee (“D” for Dixie), follows in 2011.

While this is all happening, a more academic skirmish hinges on this athletic one. Dixie State College wants to become Dixie State University, but many members of the Utah State Board of Regents believe this would be inappropriate until the school removes all ties to the Confederacy, up to and including the name of the institution. That doesn’t happen, but they get just enough support to gain university status anyway, and this becomes official in 2013.

Meanwhile, “Red Storm” is an incredibly unpopular nickname and pretty much everyone involved wants a do-over, so that’s exactly what they get. University administration reaches out to Love Communications, a public relations firm in Salt Lake City, and commissions six possible replacement identities from them for $50,000.

Love sends the following options to Dixie State: Marshals, Raptors, Rockhounds, Sun Warriors, Trailblazers, and Wranglers. The university forms an Identity Committee of 12 students and administrators to decide on the best option. The committee polls campus to get an initial idea of which options are popular, and from this poll, they eliminate “Marshals”, “Rockhounds”, and “Wranglers”.

From there, as with the 2009 rebrand, the committee would just need to pick between the three finalists. The pick this time was “Trailblazers”, announced on the afternoon of April 11, 2016. At the same time, they announce that the bison will remain the school mascot, but it’ll get a facelift and be renamed Brooks in honor of Samuel Brooks, the first student ever to attend the school back in 1911.

Interestingly, Dixie State’s softball team is in the second inning of a game against California Baptist while university leaders make this announcement. They begin the game as the Red Storm and finish it as the Trailblazers.

In 2020, Dixie State jumps up from Division II to Division I. Entering the national consciousness removes basically every excuse for them to still hold the Dixie name, so they finally abandon it in 2022, renaming themselves Utah Tech University.

They’re now the Utah Tech Trailblazers. Thankfully.

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