Even without the Banana Slugs, schools with wrestling have plenty of colorful and unique nicknames

One thing I’ve always been enamored with is the nicknames schools use for their athletics programs. When I was in ninth grade, I thumbed through a sports almanac and memorized every Division I school’s nickname. Yes, I was that kid at school. The only other guy who would match me, and actually know more, would be my classmate Ryan Hall, who would appear on Jeopardy! back in 2007.

With the addition of Little Rock and Presbyterian and the reclassification of Cal Baptist and soon, Long Island University, we’ll have 79 Division I wrestling programs next season.

By my count, we have 450 varsity college wrestling programs. I won’t argue the semantics of what varsity means at its core, but I include all NCAA, NJCAA and NAIA schools, as well as the California Community Colleges, women’s programs regardless of division and schools who have varsity programs that compete in the NCWA or the USCAA banner.

Of those 450, there are 207 unique nicknames. I also need to clarify that at schools with both men’s and women’s teams, they’re counted individually, so while Adrian is the Bulldogs, they don’t count as one Bulldogs, they count as two.

For general nickname comparisons, I pulled up the names of the full members of the NCAA and NAIA, which totaled 1,360 schools. There are some nuances to this, as in the case with LIU, where two separate athletic programs are combining into one, so everything isn’t exactly concrete.

Let’s play around with some geekery, shall we?

If you had to guess, what do you think the most common nickname among school with wrestling is? Tigers? Bulldogs? Warriors? Panthers? Banana Slugs?

1. Panthers (14)
In wrestling, there are 14 teams with the nickname Panthers, with Ferrum and York College in Nebraska having men’s and women’s teams. What’s also interesting is eight of these Panthers are at schools that started wrestling after 2000 — Davenport, Drury, Ferrum, Kentucky Wesleyan, Pitt-Bradford, and York (Neb.). Other Panthers are Ellsworth, Neosho and Sac City in the junior college ranks, Northern Iowa and Pittsburgh in Division I and Plymouth State in Division III. Of the 351 current Division I institutions, eight schools go by Panthers. Across the 1,360 NCAA and NAIA schools – Panthers is tied for fifth, with 31 schools (two percent), as the most common nickname.

2. Tigers (12)
Of the 12 teams called Tigers, two schools have men’s and women’s teams – Campbellsville and Central Christian, both from the NAIA. In Division I, it’s just Missouri and Princeton, while Fort Hays State and Ouachita Baptist are the only two Tigers with wrestling in Division II. Across the schools tracked, there’s 42 schools that go by Tigers (or Lady Tigers). There’s also two Golden Tigers, one Blue Tigers, one Fighting Tigers and one Maroon Tigers. Sadly, none of the color-coded Tigers have wrestling programs.

3. Lions (11)

Three sets of men’s and women’s teams are in this mix, with Emmanuel, Lindenwood (St. Charles), and Nassau holding down the Lions name. Columbia is the lone Division I school with no prefix on its Lions nickname. Division III has three of them – Penn State Behrend, Mount St. Joseph (Ohio), and The College of New Jersey. Across the schools charted, Lions accounted for 32 schools with three additional Nittany Lions (see below), three Mountain Lions, a Golden Lions and a Red Lions. Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego is the Sea Lions, but those aren’t the type of lions we’re looking for.

For argument’s sake: If Penn State fans want to argue on this about the Lions being No. 1, you can argue semantics, because there are three more Nittany Lions – yes, three – with wrestling teams. In addition to Penn State’s main campus in State College (err, University Park), PSU branch campuses at Mont Alto, New Kensington and Schuylkill are also the Nittany Lions. What adds confusion to the Nittany Lions tangent is PSU-Schuylkill recently received admittance into the NAIA and had what appeared to be a varsity wrestling program competing with the other branch campuses. Since the move, wrestling has disappeared from its official website and the administration calls it a club sport, so make of that what you will. Of note, the three branch campuses that do consider the sport varsity are all USCAA teams competing in NCWA postseason events. The only Penn State branch campus within the NAIA and NCAA with varsity wrestling is Penn State Behrend, which is simply the Lions. PSU-Fayette goes by the Roaring Lions.

And in case you’re wondering, those other Nittany Lions within the NCAA are PSU branch campuses at PSU-Berks College and PSU-Abington.

4A. Eagles (10)
Across the NAIA and NCAA schools, Eagles constitutes the most common nickname with 50 schools. In wrestling, we have 10 schools with no schools doubling up with their men’s and women’s teams. Life University has men’s and women’s wrestling and are known as the Running Eagles. American is the lone Eagles in Division I, which makes sense because what’s more American than Eagles? Well, Lock Haven’s Bald Eagles. No Khabib references, please.

Ashland and Chadron State are Eagles in Division II, while UW-La Crosse and the University of the Ozarks stake their claim to Eagles in Division III. Five schools in the NAIA claim Eagles – Embry-Riddle, Midway, Oklahoma Wesleyan, Reinhardt and Williams Baptist. Oddly, four of those schools (the last four) started wrestling after 2013.

Lock Haven holds the distinction of being the only Bald Eagles, while there are four Golden Eagles – Clarion, Brockport, West Hills-Lemoore in California and the NCWA varsity team at Kent State-Tuscarawas. Don’t ask me how to pronounce it. There’re numerous derivatives of Eagles across college athletics, including two Screaming Eagles – Southern Indiana and New Jersey’s College of Saint Elizabeth. Sorry Hayden Fox fans, Minnesota State is the Mavericks, NOT the Screaming Eagles. Well, the one in Mankato is the Mavericks. The Minnesota State in Moorhead is the Dragons.

If you’re under the age of 35 and don’t know who Hayden Fox is, Google it.

4B. Warriors (10)
If you’re older than 35, you might hear the name Warriors and immediately yell “COME OUT AND PLAAAAAY.” If you have no idea what I’m referencing, Google that, too. Warriors is a nickname that’s come under fire by some for Native American imagery. A number of schools have changed names – like Marquette, which used to have wrestling. They changed it from Warriors to, not surprisingly, Golden Eagles.

Waldorf and Midland are Warriors with both men’s and women’s teams while there is not a single Division I wrestling program with the nickname. In fact, there isn’t a single Division I school with the nickname Warriors anymore with the only exception being Hawaii, which goes by Rainbow Warriors (its women’s programs go by Rainbow Wahine).

East Stroudsburg in Division II and Lycoming in Division III are the only NCAA schools with wrestling carrying the Warriors name. Midland, Indiana Tech and new programs at Rochester (Mich.) and Life Pacific all go by Warriors from the NAIA. So maybe the lesson here in Division I is, if you’re nicknamed the Warriors, don’t come out and play? Dad jokes. I’ll see myself out.

The six-way tie for sixth (8)
Since the next six nicknames all have eight schools associated with them, here is the breakdown.

Knights
There’re eight teams with “Knights” but we’ve also got a Black Knights, a Blue Knights, a pair of Golden Knights and those Scarlet Knights in New Jersey. As far as just plain

ol’ Knights go, three are in the NAIA (Marian, St. Andrews and Warner Pacific), one’s in Division II (Bellarmine) and two are in Division III (Wartburg and Southern Virginia). Warner Pacific doubles up the name with its men’s and women’s teams.

Gannon’s men’s and women’s teams are the two Golden Knights, while the new Division II program at Urbana is the Blue Knights. Army West Point’s Black Knights always triumph. Have at you!

Across athletics, Knights comprises 18 schools, but also has eight additional derivatives, including the colorful Blue, Black and Scarlet variety listed above as well as non-wrestling schools known as the Purple Knights (St. Michael’s in Vermont and Bridgeport in Connecticut), Green Knights (St. Norbert in Wisconsin) and another Black Knights at Southern University of New Orleans, which is not the Southern that plays in the Bayou Classic each year for you HBCU football fans.

I do have to mention the Academy of Art University in San Francisco is the Urban Knights, while the Gothic Knights reside at New Jersey City University, a Division III school. Yes, Academy of Art has athletics and they’re Division II. There’s also the Fighting Knights of Lynn University, a Division II school in Florida. All would be worthy additions to the college wrestling landscape.

Bulldogs
Adrian doubles up with men’s and women’s wrestling, while there are two Division I schools – Fresno State and The Citadel – called Bulldogs. Truman State, which recently raised enough money to keep its program rolling this season, is the lone Division II program. Adrian’s the lone Division III. Concordia in Nebraska is the only NAIA school, while a pair of junior colleges – Thaddeus Stevens and Bergen hold the canine distinction.

Gardner-Webb, which is technically the Runnin’ Bulldogs. Yes, there is an apostrophe here and no g. Bulldogs is the second-most common nickname within the schools researched, 38 schools use it with Gardner-Webb being the only school with a prefix.

Cougars
I’ve got a story about the time I took my buddy Billy Sincoskie to the Group AA/A State wrestling tournament in Salem, Virginia about 15 years ago, but only Earl Smith would find that amusing. Let’s just say Billy found a high school banner near where he was sitting, and yelled “GO COUGARS” the entire time.

With 27 schools in the NAIA and NCAA using the nickname, just six are Division I and only SIU Edwardsville has a wrestling team. No wrestling schools in Division II use it, while just Averett is the only Division III school with the name. Five of the eight schools are junior colleges, including two in California (Cuesta and Lassen), and three in the NJCAA (Barton, Camden County and Clackamas).

First-year Cleary is the only NAIA school to use Cougars. It’s most prevalent in Division III with eight sets of Cougars and no school of the NCAA or NAIA membership have any variation of Cougars.

Spartans
Will Ferrell. That’s all I can typically recall when I hear anything about Spartans. Or John Spartan from Demolition Man. Again, no idea? Google it. There are eight Spartans with Missouri Baptist doubling up with men and women. Michigan State is the lone Division I Spartans, while there are five in Division III – Case Western Reserve, Castleton, Dubuque, Manchester and York College of Pennsylvania. Nothing really much to add here. If you don’t have Spartan Spirit, you’re fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute.

Pioneers
We’re about to go down to seven Pioneers here eventually as LIU Post’s Division II athletics brand was Pioneers and the recent announcement (mentioned above) will see the school adopt a new nickname when it merges with LIU-Brooklyn athletically. Wayland Baptist has both men’s and women’s wrestling, so that accounts for two Pioneers, while Sacred Heart is the only Division I school with Pioneers as its nickname. It’s also the only Catholic institution with a Division I wrestling team. We’ll save that for an article on nuances of college programs later on. Alfred State in New York recently completed its transition to Division III joins UW-Platteville as that division’s only Pioneers. Northland Technical and Community College in the northwest corner of Minnesota and Spartanburg Methodist in South Carolina are also Pioneers.

There are 24 Pioneers across the NCAA and NAIA with 10 of them in Division III.

Vikings
Missouri Valley checks in with two having men’s and women’s wrestling, while Augustana has two Vikings, but they’re at two different schools. Division II Augustana University in South Dakota and Division III Augustana College in Illinois. Both have the same basic colors and up until a few years ago, they were both “colleges.” Cleveland State is the only Division I Vikings, while NAIA powerhouse Grand View joins MoVal as the only other Vikings in the NAIA. I’m binge watching Cheers right now and haven’t yet made it to the episode where Woody makes a Screaming Viking. You know the drill – Google machine.

More Nickname Trivia
There’ five Yellow Jackets and two more Yellowjackets. There are no more Hornets, as Delaware State was the last Hornets to have wrestling. Trinity in Connecticut is the only Bantams, Alderson Broaddus is the only Battlers, Ohio Wesleyan is the only Battling Bishops with wrestling, although North Carolina Wesleyan (Division III) also has the name athletically.

You’re my boy, Blue
Millikin is the only Big Blue in nickname, although one school near and dear to my heart has its mascot named Big Blue. The only two Blue Hawks nest at NAIA Dickinson State and Presbyterian will be the smallest school in Division I with wrestling. They’re the Blue Hose. John Carroll is the Blue Streaks, UW-Eau Claire is the Blugolds. Lindsey Wilson is the Blue Raiders, while Minnesota West is the Bluejays, but Elizabethtown, Johns Hopkins, Elmhurst and Westminster are the Blue Jays.

Speaking of colors
Cornell is the Big Red and Harvard is the Crimson, Calumet College of St. Joseph is the Crimson Wave, Stanford is the Cardinal, Lourdes is the Gray Wolves, McDaniel the Green Terror and the University of Chicago is the Maroons.

Goldilocks and the three bears
Kutztown, Western New England and West Virginia Tech are all Golden Bears. At the risk of sounding trite, I’m going to just let the title do all the groaning for you. There’s also the four Golden Eagles and two Golden Knights mentioned above but also Minnesota’s Golden Gophers, Kent State’s Golden Flashes, Alvernia’s Golden Wolves and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M’s Golden Norsemen.

Minnesota is a bit messed up
Augsburg is the Auggies, St. John’s is the Johnnies, St. Olaf is the Oles. There’re some other jacked up simple names in the MIAC too. St. Thomas is the Tommies and Gustavus Adolphus is the Gusties. Neither has wrestling any longer. Concordia (the one in Moorhead) is the Cobbers. Fear the Ear, is what they say. Children of the Corn is a reference I’ve never made, but probably should have. Nebraska keeps it corny with Cornhuskers.

Them’s fightin’ words
Wilmington is the Fightin’ Quakers, Campbell the Fighting Camels, Illinois the Fighting Illini and there’s a pair of Fighting Scots – some live in Edinboro, while the others in West Virginia at Ohio Valley University.

The Weather Channel
No Jim Cantore here, just Trine and Wheaton with Thunder, Iowa State and Centenary with Cyclones, King with its men and women creating a Tornado, while if the clouds are right, you can get a glimpse of some cool colors when you see the Montana State-Northern Lights.

Reptilians
Coker’s Cobras and Otero’s Rattlers are the only snakes in wrestling, while San Francisco State’s Gators is a formidable reptile. Maryland Terrapins are here as well, while some would argue that Chattanooga was once a snake, going by the Moccasins a while back, now they go by the Mocs, which is a Mockingbird, the state bird of Tennessee.

And some final one-offs

• Southwestern in Kansas started women’s wrestling. They’re the Moundbuilders. Apprentice School in Newport News, Virginia is simply the Builders.
• Williams is the Ephs, pronounced EEEF.
• Central Oklahoma spells its nickname Bronchos. Why (< Link)?
• Heidelberg in Ohio is the Student Princes.
• Grays Harbor is the Chokers? Really?
• Simon Fraser is the Clan. They’re from Canada, though, yet Mt. San Antonio College in California is the Mounties.
• Southeastern is the Fire.
• A Hokie? Virginia Tech. That’s a question as old as time itself.
• Only Hawkeyes? Yup. Iowa.
• The University of Providence, which is in Montana, not Providence, is the Argonauts.
• Ohio Northern is the Polar Bears.
• Do you like movies about Gladiators? Chabot (sha-bo) has you covered.

This wasn't an exhaustive list, so not every unique name was included. What are some of your favorites?