The Duke Blue Devils: WHAT'S IN A NAME?

1970 Blue Devil

Ever wonder how a school settles on the name for their athletic teams’ mascot?

When the officials of Trinity College [now Duke University] reinstituted football after WWI ended, they had NO mascot to initiate school spirit for its sport teams. The Trinity Eleven, the Blue and White, and even the Methodists, were subpar compared to the names of neighboring universities. So, the staff of the Trinity Chronicle began a campaign to solicit some new names for the mascot in order to give them an identity of their very own. Some suggestions were the Blue Titans, the Blue Eagles, the Polar Bears [don’t get this one!], the Blue Devils, the Royal Blazes, and the Blue Warriors; all [except one!] which seemed to fit nicely with the school colors of blue and white. Yet, the administration was hesitant on choosing the student body favorite, “blue devil”, for what they believed were “obvious reasons.”[I wonder if this meant that since the school was religiously founded, it should not have a mascot name be synonymous with a “Devil” of any kind?] Hmmm... Anyhow, as a result, the naming of the mascot was a task left unfinished for the time being!

A few years later, with the school now populated with a student body well versed on the war, the staffs of the newspapers The Archive, the Chanticleer, and the Trinity Chronicle decided it was in the best interest of the university to go with the crowd pleaser the “Blue Devil.” Through constant use of the name in the university’s newspapers, the name eventually stuck, and there you have it… Yours and mine... The Duke Blue Devils…

1995 Blue Devil

Yet, are you, like me, still baffled as to why the university became so enamored by the name Blue Devil? Besides the obvious relationship with the school colors; why a Blue Devil? Who ever heard of a Blue Devil? Not me! After doing a little digging, I found out that the name was the nickname for the Chasseurs Alpins, a group of French soldiers who were known for their patriotism and courage during the trench warfare in the French Alps. So now, since most of the student population at that time had been directly or indirectly involved with the wartime effort, and a group of Blue Devils had recently come to the United States to actually raise money, it almost seemed as though it was a ‘no brainer’. Oh yes, it also didn’t hurt that Irving Berlin, a popular composer of the twenties through the forties, had a song out at the time that personified the spirit of the Blue Devils as “strong and active”!