SEC Trivia

[Master Capper]

1) What provoked the ?Crimson Tide? nickname?

The nickname was first coined by the former editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, Hugh Roberts. Roberts first used the term in describing a 1907 game between Alabama and Auburn. The game was played in a virtual sea of mud, and Alabama, which was a heavy underdog, produced ?wave after wave? of inspired football and eventually forged a 6-6 tie with its archrival. Zipp Newman, who was the sports editor of the Birmingham News, popularized the name and eventually it stuck and replaced the ?Thin Red Line? nickname, which was used by sports writers prior to that 1907 landmark game.

2) How in the heck did an elephant become Bama?s mascot?
It was on October 8, 1930, when Alabama Journal sports writer Everett Strupper wrote his account of an Alabama-Ole Miss game he had attended four days prior. Strupper described the 1930 Bama team as one of the best blocking teams he had ever seen. At the beginning of the Ole Miss game, Bama head coach Wallace Wade started the second team, but, as the Rebels defense withstood the Tides? offensive surges, Wade decided to march his massive first unit onto the field at the start of the second quarter. Strupper described the event in the following manner: ?At the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, ?Hold your horses, the elephants are coming?. It was the first time that I had seen it and the size of the entire eleven nearly knocked me cold, men that I had seen play last year looking like they had nearly doubled in size.? The 1930 Bama squad went on to win the national championship and, in the process, shut out eight opponents and allowed a mere 13 points the entire season. The team was nicknamed the ?Red Elephants?.

3) How did the Razorback nickname come about?

Well, the university of Arkansas teams were not always the Razorbacks, and, prior to 1909, the school?s moniker was the ?Cardinal? (thus, the reason for the school?s primary color). In 1909, though, head football coach Hugo Bezdek referred to his players as ?a wild band of razorback hogs? after Arkansas posted a 16-0 shutout over rival LSU. Bezdek continued using this nickname until it became so popular that the students voted for the nickname change the following season. Over a decade later, the famous hog call known as ?Wooooooo, Pig!, Sooie!? was put in place as the university?s official school yell.

4) What common mistake do ?those Yankees? make when referring to the Auburn athletic teams?

Individuals not close to the tradition of the university have often referred to Auburn?s nickname as both the ?Tigers? and the ?War Eagles?. However, ?War Eagle!? is the school?s battle cry, not an alternate nickname. The true nickname of ?Tigers? actually has its roots in author Oliver Goldsmith?s poem ?The Deserted Village?, in which Goldsmith writes about the town of Auburn. A line in the poem refers to the town as ?Where couching tigers wait their hapless prey?? You may also have heard of the term ?Plainsmen? used to describe the Auburn teams. This term is also rooted in that same Goldsmith poem, in which he describes: ?Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain??

5) What?s the most popular story behind the ?War Eagle!? battle cry?

Despite tales involving a 1914 game against Carlisle, a 1913 pep rally at Langdon Hall, or an Osage Indian chief temporarily settling his tribe near campus, the favorite story of the AU faithful, regarding this battle cry, centers around the first ever football game against rival Georgia in 1892. The story goes that a spectator, who was a Civil War veteran, brought with him his pet eagle, which he had found on a Civil War battlefield 30 years prior. Witness accounts indicate that the eagle broke free from his master and began circling the stadium at the same time the Tiger offensive unit was marching down the field. The Auburn fans and students began yelling ?War Eagle!? to cheer their team onto victory. The Tigers prevailed and, as the contest ended, the eagle flew downward, crashed into the ground and died. From that day forward, the ?War Eagle!? battle cry was used to honor the fallen bird. While no one can authenticate this story, the legendary tale has survived for over a century.

6) Just how much clout does the University of Georgia?s mascot, Uga, carry with him?

In the state of Georgia, no human can match his fame, and, across the country, no live mascot can match his popularity. The Bulldog mascot has been around since 1956 and its family tree comes exclusively from the Frank W. Seiler family of Savannah, Georgia. The Uga line, as of today, has sent six White English bulldog mascots to the Athens campus over the past 45+ years: Uga I (1956-66), Uga II (1966-71), Uga III (1972-80), Uga IV (1981-89), Uga V (1990-99), and Uga VI (1999-present). Uga VI?s five predecessors are all buried within the confines of Sanford Stadium near the main gate, and, before each game, flowers are placed near each of their cement-vaulted graves. Over the years, Uga has been featured in such magazines as Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, and Sport, and has made appearances at the White House, the Georgia House & Senate, the Cotton Bowl Parade, and is the only live mascot to have attended a Final Four (Albuquerque ? 1983), and the only mascot of any kind to attend a Heisman Trophy presentation (Herschel Walker ? 1982).
7) How long has ?The Swamp? been around?

If you?re referring to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field, it?s been around since 1921. The Stadium is also referred to as ?The Swamp?, which was a nickname given to the facility shortly after former Gator Heisman winner Steve Spurrier was hired as the head coach in 1990. Spurrier removed the artificial turf, added a natural grass surface, and proclaimed these legendary words: ?The swamp is where gators live. We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous.? From that point forward, the entire college football nation began referring to UF?s home venue as ?The Swamp?. The original name of the facility was Florida Field, which opened with a capacity of 21,769 and amounted to, what is today, the lower tier of the stadium. By 1960, capacity reached 46,164, and four years later was increased to 62, 800. Just prior to the 1989 season, the facility was named after long-time booster Ben Hill Griffen Jr., and, eventually, the capacity reached its present-day total of 90,000+. The Atlanta Journal Constitution once referred to ?The Swamp? as ?The loudest, most obnoxious and notorious piece of real estate in all of college football?.

8) Who gave Kentucky its Wildcat nickname?

Commandant Carbusier. The UK football team took a trip to Illinois for an early October game against the Illini in 1909. The blue & white fought its way to a 6-2 road victory, which prompted Carbusier to tell a group of students, in a chapel service following the game, that the Kentucky football team had ?fought like Wildcats?. The Wildcat moniker caught on among the fans and media, and eventually was adopted by the school as the official nickname.

9) Who put the fight in the LSU Fighting Tigers?

The Tiger nickname is believed to have come from a New Orleans-based volunteer unit during the Civil War. This volunteer company was commanded by Major Chatham Roberdeau Wheat and was nicknamed the ?Tigers?. These ?Tigers? were the only company in Wheat?s batallion to wear the Zouave uniform (baggy trousers, braided jackets, and tasseled fez headgear). The Tiger nickname was later given to all the Louisiana troops in Robert E. Lee?s army of Northern Virginia. The Tiger logo can also be traced back to the Civil War years, as the famous Washington Artillery of New Orleans militia unit created the insignia. The unit?s logo featured a snarling tiger?s head. The university, as a result, adopted the nickname in 1897 and, in the mid-1950?s, LSU became known as the ?Fighting Tigers?.

10) What?s the story behind Ole Miss, the Rebel, and The Grove?

The nickname ?Ole Miss? was created in 1896 when the late Miss Elma Meek won a contest for naming the student yearbook. The name gradually became synonymous with the university and, as the late Frank Everett Jr. (Class of ?32) stated: ?The University is buildings, trees and people. Ole Miss is mood, emotion and personality. One is physical, and the other is spiritual. One is tangible, and the other intangible. The University is respected, but Ole Miss is loved.? ? The Rebel nickname came about in 1936 when the student newspaper polled 42 newsmen to come up with a nickname for the university?s athletic teams. As it turned out, only half of the newsmen responded, but, of those 21, 18 submitted ?Rebels? as their choice. Judge Ben Guilder stated: ?If 18 sports writers wish to use ?Rebels?, I shall not rebel, so let it go ?Ole Miss Rebels?. ? Lastly, The Grove is a 10-acre plot of land located in the center of campus. The area is grassy, heavily shaded by large oak trees, and is the main area of tailgating for Rebel fans. Started by former head coach Billy Brewer, in 1983, the team walks down a sidewalk through the middle of The Grove two hours prior to kickoff. This tradition became known as the ?Walk of Champions?.

 

[Master Capper]

11) What?s that sound you hear coming from Starkville during autumn Saturdays?

That?s the tradition known as the Mississippi State Cowbell, which is the most widely recognized (though illegal) noisemaker in all of college football. While the origin of the cowbell remains a mystery, legend has it that a cow wandered onto the playing field during a late 1930?s game against archrival Ole Miss. The Bulldogs ended up winning the contest, and the student body, consequently, adopted the cow as a good luck charm. As a result, the football team started bringing the cow to its practices, but eventually just began bringing along the cow?s bell. By the early 1960?s, the MSU fans started bringing cowbells to each home game and the university bookstore, subsequently, began selling these bells. In 1974, the SEC schools voted against the use of the bells, but this hardly phased the Bulldog fan base, as many of the MSU faithful continue to ?ring? in the tradition at both home and away games.

12) Which State hero and which local Columbia (SC) business owner each had a hand in coining the ?Fighting Gamecocks? nickname?

There may be a few reasons why the South Carolina athletic teams call themselves Gamecocks. One, of which, is certainly due to the State?s Revolutionary War hero Thomas Sumter. Sumter?s nickname was ?The South Carolina Gamecock?, and he was largely responsible for fearlessly leading the fight against the British. In 1902, the Carolina football team upset its archrival Clemson. The USC students went on a victory march through the streets near campus and carried around a picture they had taken from a local tobacco store window. The transparency was a depiction of a gamecock standing over a fallen tiger. Shortly thereafter, The State newspaper began using the ?Game Cocks? nickname when referring to the team. Two years later, the two words were combined into one, and the South Carolina athletic teams had its ?Gamecocks? moniker. It is believed that General Sumter?s nickname inspired the transparency in that tobacco store, which was created by USC mathematics professor, Horton Colcock.

13) Which military battles were responsible for the Vols? nickname?

It is widely known that the State?s ?Volunteer? nickname comes from the fact that so many Tennessee natives were known for filling the need for soldiers in battles, fought by our country, prior to the Civil War. In the War of 1812, Tennessee native, General Andrew Jackson (future U.S. President), gathered over 1500 troops from his home state to battle the Native Americans and, later, the British in the battle of New Orleans. The legend of the Volunteer Army gathered more steam, later in the century, when Tennessee Governor Aaron Brown asked for 2800 men from his home state to fight in the Mexican War. As it turned out, 30,000 Tennessee natives answered the call. Needless to say, the Volunteer nickname was a fitting way for the State?s largest university to honor the spirit of its forefathers.

14) How did UT?s mascot win the hearts of the Vols? faithful?

In 1953, the student pep club decided to hold a contest to select a mascot to represent the school?s athletic teams. The committee decided on a state native-bred hound dog and chose the halftime of a Vols? home game as the forum for deciding the winning canine. As each hound was introduced, the UT fans were encouraged to cheer for their favorite. Rev. Bill Brooks was the owner of ?Brooks? Blue Smokey?, and, as the hound dog was introduced (it just so happened that Brooks? entry was the last one announced), he barked emphatically. This drew a loud cheer from the crowd and caused the dog to bark again. The tradeoff between ?Brooks? Blue Smokey? and the Volunteer faithful continued until Shields-Watkins field (the home of the Vols prior to the birth of Neyland Stadium) cheered at such length that the winning choice was indisputable. The canine mascot became known, simply, as ?Smokey? and, through the years, seven other hound dogs have shared the same name. Smokey VIII retired following the Jan. 2, 2004 Peach Bowl (due to cancer), but Smokey IX will lead the Vols through the giant ?T? prior to the 2004 opener, as he becomes the eighth canine mascot to carry on the UT tradition.

15) Who?s responsible for the name & nickname of Nashville?s largest university?

Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded Vanderbilt University in 1873. At the young age of sixteen, Vanderbilt borrowed $100 from his mother and started a small ferry service from Staten Island to Manhattan (New York). The tiny business grew into a flourishing Trans-Atlantic steamship service, which he operated until the beginning of the Civil War. Later on, as Vanderbilt reached his golden years, he ventured into the railroad business and created the New York Central System on his way to the largest fortune in the United States. It was after then, that Vanderbilt gave over a million dollars to build the school. Despite never having visited Nashville, he entrusted Bishop McTyeire, a close friend, to design and oversee the construction of Vanderbilt University.