![]() ![]() NC State faces off against the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill during a football game at Riddick Stadium, circa 1925. Supposedly, the school’s fans quickly and affectionately adopted the new name for its football team.Ī copy of that letter has never been unearthed, nor has any evidence that the school’s Board of Trustees or Athletics Council ever officially discussed or adopted “Wolfpack” as the football team’s official nickname.Īs in nature, the Pack formed on its own. That’s counter to the oral tradition holding that the nickname came from a letter to a local paper that said NC State fans were as “unruly as a pack of wolves” at a football game. To have the State team known as the Wolf Pack would add tremendously in publicity.” ![]() Here is a snappy, aggressive name which would have a most favorable effect on the College. Now, my suggestion is that State teams take up the symbol of the Wolves. Pride is taken in these names and teams traditionally try to live up to them. These names add a picturesque touch to those colleges which I have always thought reacted favorably on the playing of the team, not to speak of the added drawing power of something like the Gold Tornado from Georgia Tech. Take, for instance, the Yale ‘Bulldog,’ or the Princeton ‘Tiger,’ and the ‘Carolina Tarheels ,’ with many others. “It has always appeared to me that those teams which had traditional symbols and nicknames have the greatest morale and spirit among the colleges. With good timing, an anonymous “old grad” came through with a suggestion in this unsigned letter to the February 1921 NC State Alumni News that fit perfectly and uniquely for the school located on the west end of Raleigh. That part of our identity has expanded from those greasy overalls into our world-class College of Engineering and College of Sciences, which have improved lives throughout the state, across the nation and around the world. (1916) The Techs gave a nod to the other half of NC State College’s original disciplines: mechanics, technology and a foundation in sciences. Insults of “Culture Beats Agriculture” were easy to hurl but difficult to stick on a school proud of its agrarian heritage, which continues today through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. (1909) The Farmers, while seen as honorable, were also derided as lowbrow by classist neighbors. From Maryland to Mississippi, State College often played Aggie-on-Aggie games on any given weekend. It was also the name used by every similar land-grant school in the country. The Aggies were a natural nickname for an agricultural institution. It took a while - and a few false starts - to find the right name to show pride in the people’s college. The Techs. Names that could easily be leveraged into pejoratives by classist rivals. College for Agriculture and Mechanic Arts had been yoked with names given by outside entities: The Aggies. Just after World War I, the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering was establishing a new identity.Īs the entire student body decommissioned from the Student Army Training Corps and the school broke in its new official name, a new means of campus communication, a new form of self-governance and new athletics leadership, what is now known as branding was a big part of building a better postwar version of the 32-year-old land grant institution that had adopted red and white for its colors in late 1895, but had no official mascot or nickname.įor years, the former N.C. ![]()
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