100 Days of MSU Football - Day 61
Our countdown to the 2012 season continues today with Day 61. For the first 60+ years of our football team's history, we carried with us a nickname other than Bulldogs. To start, we were the Aggies. We then for a while donned the nickname Maroons. It wasn't until the 1961 season that Mississippi State officially adopted the "Bulldogs" for all teams. From HailState.com:
As with most universities, State teams answered to different nicknames through the years. The first squads representing Mississippi A&M College were proud to be called Aggies, and when the school officially became Mississippi State College in 1932 the nickname Maroons, for State's uniform color, gained prominence. Bulldogs became the official title for State teams in 1961, not long after State College was granted university status. Yet references to school teams and athletes as Bulldogs actually go back to early in the century, and this nickname was used almost interchangably with both Aggies and Maroons, since at least 1905.
BONUS:
Here's some cool footage of MSU's 11-10 win over Auburn in 1961. That victory over the Tigers was State's first in 22 tries.
1961 Miss. State @ Auburn (via sparky39762)