Arkansas Cardinal. Bird or color?
There is a thread over on hogville concerning the original mascot of the University of Arkansas. I believe we were referred to as “The Cardinal” not as the Cardinals as is sometimes said. A couple of posters from hogville believe our mascott was mearly based on the color and not the bird. I have scans posted in our photo gallery showing a cardinal bird from the cover of the 1902-03 University of Arkansas yearbook. If anyone has information that would clear this up please let me know by replying to this post.
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UA Fan
Dear Sir -
It does appear to be a matter of semantics but is of some importance historically. From what I can tell, the mascot was the Cardinal (bird) just like now the mascot is the Razorback. The team nickname was the Cardinals just as now it is the Razorbacks. This distinguishes the University of Arkansas from Stanford University whose teams are referred to as “The Cardinal” bearing no relation to the bird of the same name (http://www.gostanford.com/school-bio/stan-nickname-mascot.html).
Regarding the yearbook, it is customary to name such in the singular. In the past, the UA yearbook was called “The Cardinal” similar to the current desigantion: “The Razorback” (http://yearbook.uark.edu/).
Thanks for posting this topic!