athletic nickname versus athletic moniker edit

When proposing this article, there was discussion whether the widely-accepted term for this concept was "athletic nickname" or "athletic moniker". It was decided that while both were in wide use, athletic nickname appears to be somewhat more popular. For example, perform your own investigation in Google searching first for the term "athletic nickname" then in a separate search "athletic moniker". To reflect this popular preference but also this wide usage of two different terms, athletic nickname is the title of this article with athletic moniker both redirecting to this article as well as appearing periodically in this article's text as an interchangable term. —Optikos 13:51, 1 March 2006 (UTC)Reply


I am not sure if there is any "official" source, but I think there is a distinction between what is an unofficial alternate name and what the official name is. For example, the Dodgers, at least when in Brooklyn, were often referred to as the "Bums" while the Yankees are sometimes called the "Bronx Bombers". These two I think are nicknames, while the official terms "Dodgers" and "Yankees" are not true nicknames. I would also consider variations of the official names, such as "Cubbies" for the Cubs, or "Dawgs" for a team named the Bulldogs would also be nicknames.69.29.207.109 (talk) 19:38, 21 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

Examples edit

When authoring the initial version of this article, I intentionally did not provide a single real-world example, because once one example appears, then I suspect that every alumnus of every school will want to see their school's athletic moniker appear as well, especially among arch-rivals. If we want to have a separate article that serves as a compendium list of all athletic nicknames, then a separate article such as "List of athletic nicknames" is my recommendation, rather than polluting this explanatory article with large amounts of listed data. —Optikos 13:57, 1 March 2006 (UTC)Reply

I added some examples, with the intent of presenting a variety of types of nicknames schools use in the categories given, as well as trying to use more familiar schools (and at least in Division I). I deliberately kept it to three schools per category, and to nicknames that (I feel) are very good representations of the scope of the descriptions. BTW, I couldn't find any school that used a historical figure for their nickname.Senor k 11:52, 26 October 2007 (UTC)Reply

United States of America edit

Can the phrase:

...of a university or college within the United States of America...

be modified to show that it is not used on the USA alone? --Howard the Duck 13:45, 21 June 2006 (UTC)Reply

You mean so it'll also be expanded to cover Red Devils? I certainly wouldn't object! Spazure 06:43, 26 July 2007 (UTC)Reply
The Red Devils isn't really a university or college... –Howard the Duck 14:58, 27 August 2008 (UTC)Reply
True enough, but the concept isn't limited to merely scholastic teams. While many teams outside the US are content to have (city) Football Club or the like as their name, outside of some soccer teams (modeling their name after that fashion), virtually athletic team here in the US, from youth teams on up to the major professional leagues has some sort of nickname or moniker as part of its official name. I think the article should be.modified to reflect this with perhaps some discussion of the different cncentions in different countries and different sports. Wschart (talk) 15:56, 27 February 2013 (UTC)Reply

Sentence regarding the “Father of Virginia’s Mascot” edit

At the end of Line 4’s paragraph, there was a “sentence” that I felt was out of place. However, I didn’t know whether or not it could be still relevant somewhere else. That is dependent on the legitimacy of the statement I removed. For those who are unaware of the statement, it was written exactly as follows:

The mascot is also the father of Virgina’s Mascot

In my opinion, I felt it was appropriate to remove it based on grammatical errors and contextual deficiencies. However, I want to give the user the benefit of the doubt. If you can find some credible sources for the statement and place it within the article in a contextually safe way, that would be awesome. Otherwise, I felt I did the right thing.Grayson Woods 20:30, 24 April 2018 (UTC)

"Academy 360 Cougars" listed at Redirects for discussion edit

  A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Academy 360 Cougars. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 June 22#Academy 360 Cougars until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. signed, Rosguill talk 15:34, 22 June 2021 (UTC)Reply