2011-12 Mens Golf Guide

Pirate Pride

Why Pirates? The Pirate, a symbol and namesake for East Carolina University’s ath- letic teams, was adopted from the legend and lore of coastal North Carolina nd was a natural choice for a nickname when intercollegiate athletics began at the school in the 1930s. Pirates, fierce and col- orful were prominent in the early 18th century. The state’s Outer Banks which jut far out into the Atlantic were ideal hideouts for these legendary gangsters of the high seas. Many had homes and families in the small villages along the coast. Edward Teach, best known as “Black- beard” was an infamous resident of east- ern North Carolina. He had a house at Ocracoke and an inland home at Bath near the Pamlico Sound. East Carolina University’s interest in pirates and sea lore begin in 1934. That year, the Tecoan, the yearbook for what was then East Carolina Teachers College, carried pirates as its theme. The pages were filled with paintings and sketches of patched eye buccaneers, tall shipsand bur- ied treasure. The book referred to the tales of “Teachythe Pirate” often told by natives in the historic town of Bath. The men’s varsity team, at the time, was known as“The Teachers,” alacklusterband of athletes who had won only two football games in three seasons of existence. The students’ interest in pirates grew quickly and resulted in changing the name of the team to capture the romanticappeal of the arly sea adventures. The change brought so much enthusiasm that in the follow- ing year, 1935, the Pirate football team performed much better, winning three of its six games. Prior to the introduction of intercol- legiate football in 1932, the ECTC Athletic Association fielding teams in basketball, tennis, baseball and archery, was con- tent with the more classical nicknames. A 1930-31 Handbook for ECTC listed the two teams that made up the Athletic Asso- ciation as the Olympians and the Athe- nians. Their colors were purple and gold (the same as today’s colors) and the mas- cot was a wildcat. Other uses of the pirate theme began in the 1940s with a literary magazine named “Pieces of Eight.” The name, however, was later changed to “Rebel.” ECU’s faculty and staff newsletter uses the name “Pieces of Eight” today. The college yearbook became the “Buc- caneer” in the 1950s and the pirate sym- bol, the face of a bearded, patched-eye character with a crossed bone emblem on his hat, was added to the official school seal in the mid 1960s. The Mascot The athleticmascot continuesto evolve. The bigger-than-life pirate cartoon fig- ure enjoyed by ECU fans today is a 1983 creation. At first this swaggering, tough- guy creation was called “Pee Dee,” named after a river that extends through parts of North and South Carolina. Today, the mascot responds to several names - Mr. Pirate, Pee Dee, Pete — as long as the name is spoken with respect. Be careful! He carries a cutlass. Pete, by the way, is another story. Pete was an unofficial dog mascot, but only for a few years in the mid-1970s. Pete resembled the dog in the “Little Rascals” movies and carried the reputa- tion of a back-alley brawler with an intense dislike for rams (the mascot at he University of North Carolina at Cha- pel Hill) and wolves (the mascot at N.C. State University). During Pete’s time, the defensive players on the Pirate’s football team were called the “wild dogs” because the players performed like a vicious pack of them. Other mascots have included students dressed as parrots and pirates. A live wildcat was the mascot in 1930-31. School Colors The school colors for East Carolina Uni- versity — purple and gold — go back to the time when the first students arrived on campus in 1909. ECU historian Dr. Mary Jo Bratton, the author of “East Carolina University The Formative Years 1907 - 1982,” said the selection of school colors represented one of the first tradi- tions established by the students. In the arly fall of 1909 the administration asked students for their suggestions on school colors. Old gold and royal purple won the vote. In the following year, the colors car- ried over to the school’s first baseball team, a club team, that won most of its games. According to Bratton the opening ame produced a 6-2 win for East Carolina gainst a local Greenville team. The news- paper account of the game credited the ffective cheering of the young ladies of the school for “winning the victory for the purple and gold.”