Name-a-Day Calendar, September 5: Troy Trojans
Page 303 of 365
Chosen in: 1922, then again in 1973
Chosen by: 1922 origin unclear; 1973 rebirth decided by student body vote
This is perhaps the most obvious nickname in all of Division I, but it didn’t always seem that way.
Troy State Normal School was founded in 1887 and began playing football in 1909. Because the school focused on teacher education, their first football teams were usually called the Teachers, though sometimes they were also called the Bulldogs.
It wasn’t until 1922 that the team was first called the Trojans. Modern university sources do not go into specifics on who first called this team the Trojans, how, or why, and Troy State wouldn’t found a student newspaper until 1931, so primary sources are slim. Again, though, this is one of very few cases in which I feel comfortable saying “c’mon; it’s too obvious”.
Unfortunately, one important man disagreed, he being Albert Elmore, who took over as head football coach in 1931. Elmore had just graduated from the University of Alabama, where he played football for the Crimson Tide. He wanted his team to bear a similar nickname, and Troy wore a similar shade of dark red to Alabama’s crimson, so he declared that Troy State’s team would be known as the Red Wave.
Not only did this stick even after Elmore left the school in 1937, but its usage spread to all other Troy State sports teams and remained standard for multiple decades.
In 1973, the school finally came to their senses and eliminated the “Red Wave” nickname, leaving it to the student body to decide on its replacement. A solicitation of suggestions led to a student body vote on the morning of Saturday, September 8, just a few hours before the football team opened its season on the road against what is now the University of Louisiana Monroe. The winner of this vote, by a landslide, was the obvious: the Troy State Trojans were back (just in time to play now-ULM to a 15-15 tie).
Of course, today’s teams are called the Troy Trojans. This shorter title debuted in 2005, when Troy State University became Troy University.1 Their mascot is a costumed Trojan named T-Roy.
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Other previous names: Troy State Teachers College (1929–1957), Troy State College (1957–1967)