Name-a-Day Calendar, September 16: UConn Huskies
Page 314 of 365
Chosen in: 1934
Chosen by: Student poll
In the late 1870s, businessmen Charles and Augustus Storrs donated land to the State of Connecticut for the purpose of founding an agricultural school, which was named in their honor and opened in 1881. The school became Connecticut’s land-grant institution in 1893 and was renamed Connecticut Agricultural College in 1899, beginning intercollegiate athletics smack dab in the middle of those two years with their football team first taking the field in 1896. Initially, because the school was an ag school, this team (along with the men’s basketball team that followed in 1900) was known as the Aggies.
This continued until the mid-1930s, when two events led the school to pursue a change in identity. The first came in 1933, when the school was renamed Connecticut State College as it had outgrown a purely agricultural education. The second came the next year: November 9, 1934. The day before their football game against rival Rhode Island State College (now known as the University of Rhode Island), some Connecticut State students made the 50-or-so-mile trek east to Rhode Island State’s campus in Kingston and successfully participated in the time-honored tradition of kidnapping their mascot, a live ram.1
The Connecticut State students had so much fun in this effort that they wondered why their own school didn’t have a live mascot, a sentiment that soon echoed throughout campus. In the weeks following the football season, the Connecticut Alumnus2 held a poll asking students what the school’s mascot should be. From that poll, it was decided that the husky would be Connecticut State’s mascot, though I can find no information on how or by whom. Resultantly, the school’s sports teams quickly became known as the Huskies.
Over the winter, someone acquired a live husky to serve as the mascot, and the Alumnus announced its arrival in January 1935. Another poll a month later named the husky Jonathan in honor of Jonathan Trumbull, the first governor of Connecticut. Almost 90 years later, they still enjoy the presence of a live husky mascot named Jonathan (XV).
The State of Connecticut formally renamed Connecticut State College the University of Connecticut on May 26, 1939, and the “UConn” shortening followed soon after.
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Connecticut State lost the next day’s football game 19-0 to finish the season 1-7.
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