Name-a-Day Calendar, October 9: Vanderbilt Commodores

Page 337 of 365

Chosen in: 1873

Chosen by: It just kinda happened naturally

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In 1873, Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the wealthiest people in American history, donated $1 million¹ to distant family member Holland Nimmons McTyeire for the purpose of establishing a university in Nashville that would “contribute to strengthening the ties that should exist between all sections of our common country”.²

McTyeire and the rest of the new school’s administration named the university in Vanderbilt’s honor, and since Mr. Vanderbilt himself was famously nicknamed “the Commodore”,³ members of the Vanderbilt University community naturally took to calling themselves “Commodores”. This extended to the university’s sports teams when football began play in 1890 and men’s basketball followed in 1893.

After cycling through a few dog mascots, Vanderbilt eventually landed on their current mascot, Mr. Commodore.

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1. $25,585,500 in 2023 dollars

2. Vanderbilt originally wanted to establish a university on Staten Island but McTyeire convinced him to instead donate to the university he had just founded in Nashville as a matter of regaining favor with the South following the Civil War. Vanderbilt had supported the Union during the conflict.

3. Name-a-Day within a Name-a-Day: a young Cornelius Vanderbilt captained ferries across the Upper Bay between Manhattan and Staten Island. He was apparently so wondrously eager to do this that other captains started calling him “the Commodore” as a joke. If only they knew what it would grow into.