A question: ACC Team Nicknames/Mascots

[vango]

While I knew the origins of the Triangle teams' mascots, the history of our other ACC brethren as described in this article was interesting.

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=284257

A question not answered - and being debated in my office - is the GT nickname of "Ramblin' Wreck" (as opposed to the Yellow Jackets). We've all seen the mascot "bee" and the Model-T (I'm assuming) at football games.

Just curious - anyone know where that name came from?

[jjasper0729]

found this link. it has some of the history behind it:

Ramblin' Wreck (http://ramblinwreck.cstv.com/trads/geot-trads.html)

[vango]

thank you kindly - answers that....

[VTemanresu]

Ramblin' Wreck comes from a tradition of fraternities at GT and UGA fixing up old jalopies and racing them between Atlanta and Athens. Also, the Yellow Jackets were the uniform of a booster club.

I noticed a couple of errors in the few I know, so there are probably more. For example:

UVA: "Wahoos" comes from a derisive cheer that was directed towards UVA students by Washington & Lee students during baseball games in the late 1800s.

VT: "Fred Meade's" name was really Floyd "Hard Times" Meade, and he wasn't a student. He was a local black kid who was orphaned when he was about 5 in the 1880's and was basically adopted and raised by the corps of cadets. He himself was the first mascot/cheerleader and he would dress up in various costumes at games when he was little. When he was an adult he started bringing trained turkeys to games until his death in the 40's. His turkeys were trained to gobble on command, now a gobble is broadcast over the PA in his honor.

http://spec.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/local/screen/LOCALHISTORY0642.jpg

[Methodistman]

:confused: I had always heard that unc used to be called the "White Phantoms," and a quick google search came up with several mentions of the period of time that they were known as the White Phantoms, which pretty much seems from the 1920s to 1950. I sent the author of the article a quick question about that name, and he sent a pretty quick reply that according to the unc media guide, they have always been known as the "tarheels." Was "White Phantoms" just a nickname for the team, kind of like the "Cardiac Pack" was for the 1983 Wolfpack team, or was it the official name of the teams? Thanks for any help!

[Methodistman]

sorry - I did a quick search here, and found several posts from previous threads mentioning the name "White Phantoms," but does anyone have a source, because the author for the Fayetteville Observer was kinda a jerk about it . . .

[davidson]

Take a look at this site:

www.ramfanatic.com/Basketball/white_phantoms.htm

The author determined that White Phantoms was used exclusively through 1948. Tar Holes and White Phantoms were both used in 1949, and Tar Holes exclusively since 1950.

[Methodistman]

Yeah - I saw that site yesterday. I also quoted a couple of books where the name "White Phantoms" was used, but his reply was simply that according to the UNC media guide, they have always been known as the tarheels.

So what do you think? Is unc hiding the nickname? Are they ashamed of anything that "white phantom" might imply? Is there a huge coverup? Stay tuned for the next "X-Files"!

[Indoor66]

Yeah - I saw that site yesterday. I also quoted a couple of books where the name "White Phantoms" was used, but his reply was simply that according to the UNC media guide, they have always been known as the tarheels.

So what do you think? Is unc hiding the nickname? Are they ashamed of anything that "white phantom" might imply? Is there a huge coverup? Stay tuned for the next "X-Files"!

It could only be a vile, vicious, nefarious Carowhinna conspiracy.

[Capn Poptart]

One thing not discussed is school colors of the Virginia schools. The Wahoos started off with Grey and Red, to memorialize the bloody uniforms of the fallen Confederate dead. But the colors proved too hard to see on the early mudpits that served as college football fields. So they changed to the bright orange and blue.

Tech started off as Grey and Black (how's that for a rousing uniform?). After a search revealed that no other school nationwide used maroon and orange (for good reason, I'd say), the Gobblers took that combo.

Also, Carolina people really hate it when you mention this, but historians seem to think that the tar heel name really originated as a somewhat derogatory nickname, not as a Civil War compliment. From the website of the N.C. State Library:


"The origin of this nickname is mysterious, though most historians agree that the name derives from North Carolina's long history as a producer of naval stores--tar, pitch, rosin and turpentine--all of which were culled from the State's extensive pine forests. The historians Hugh Lefler and Albert Newsome, in their book North Carolina: the History of a Southern State (3rd edition, 1973, p. 97) state categorically that "[i]n fact, North Carolina led the world in the production of naval stores from about 1720 to 1870, and it was this industry which gave to North Carolina its nickname, 'Tar Heel State'."

----http://statelibrary.dcr.state.nc.us/nc/symbols/symbols.htm

[vango]

Yeah - I saw that site yesterday. I also quoted a couple of books where the name "White Phantoms" was used, but his reply was simply that according to the UNC media guide, they have always been known as the tarheels.

So what do you think? Is unc hiding the nickname? Are they ashamed of anything that "white phantom" might imply? Is there a huge coverup? Stay tuned for the next "X-Files"!

Back then - probably not. But nowadays I think your theory has some validity.

One thing I do know - FSU was smart not to go with "Crackers."

[BlueDevilBaby]

Tech started off as Grey and Black (how's that for a rousing uniform?). After a search revealed that no other school nationwide used maroon and orange (for good reason, I'd say), the Gobblers took that combo.

Susquehanna U has the same colors and they had a football program in the late 1800's as well, but I can't find quickly what year the program started or when they went to orange and maroon unis. SU's uniforms look worse than VT's.

http://www.susqu.edu/sports/teams/Football/

[pamtar]

“There they stand as if they have tar on their heels.” - on defense!:D

The Demon Deacon mascot that performs at all home football and basketball game does not have a name. It was introduced in 1943 by a student named Jack Baldwin, who began showing up at games dressed in top hat and tails. - and I thought that was Billy Packer. :D

I'm killin it today!