Name-a-Day Calendar, September 11: UC Riverside Highlanders
Page 309 of 365
Chosen in: 1954
Chosen by: Student Donna Lewis via student body vote with an assist from the men’s basketball team
What is now the University of California, Riverside, was originally founded in 1907 as the “Citrus Experimentation Station”: a branch of the University of California developed for the purpose of experimenting with how best to improve on the state’s burgeoning citrus industry. It was upgraded to a general campus in 1954 as part of a widespread effort by the California Board of Regents to prepare for the educational needs of the baby boom generation.
The university began intercollegiate athletics the same year it opened, but it needed a mascot, so administration held a contest to select one, with the grand prize being a lifetime pass to all UC Riverside athletic events.
According to the university, members of the student body submitted 67 nickname suggestions1 in advance of a November 1954 election between six finalists. The school doesn’t specify which six nicknames were finalists, only noting that none of them received the majority required to win the election and that “Cubs” was the most popular of the six but its detractors wished not to be considered a “little brother” school to the older UC campuses.
This necessitated a second election. Ahead of that election, the men’s basketball team began to campaign for the nickname they wanted to be called: “Hylanders”, submitted by freshman Donna Lewis. This was fitting both because Box Springs Mountains east of campus are colloquially known as the Highlands and because, of the ten campuses in the UC system, Riverside’s is at the highest elevation.2 The submission was nudged to the more standard “Highlanders” on the ballot and won the election in a landslide.
Playing off this selection, the university quickly took on a Scottish theme, as the word “highlands” typically evokes the Scottish Highlands. This would extend to their mascot. They did end up making the mascot a bear to follow the UC tradition, but they dressed him in Scottish garb and named him Scotty.
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The university doesn’t list all 67 suggestions, but it does list quite a few. Here they are in alphabetical order: Aphids, Badgers, Bearcats, Bisons, Bluejays, Bondsmen, Caballeros, Chihuahuas, Cubs, Friars, Golden Beavers, Golden Eagles, Gorillas, Orangemen, Pioneers, Possums, Ramblers, Rams, Rattlers, Red Raiders, Rovers, Scorpions, Valencias, and Vaqueros.
UC Riverside is 827 feet above sea level. In case you’re wondering, the lowest is UC Santa Cruz, which plays in Division III and is situated less than half a mile from the Pacific Coast, just 36 feet above sea level.
citrus nickname opportunity extremely passed up smh
imagine a team being called like just the "orange." not even the oranges, that'd be funny but nobody would ever do that cause it stupid