Tigers on the Plains

TIGERS ON THE PLAINS

THE ORIGINS OF FHSU’S BELOVED MASCOT

Ask any mammologist, and they will confirm that the tiger is not indigenous to the plains of Western Kansas. So how did the tiger become synonymous with a beloved institution like Fort Hays State University? The story begins in the nascent days of W.A. Lewis’s tenure, an administration renowned for scholastic ambition and foresight.

William Alexander Lewis was a dreamer and a doer. At the age of 36, he was selected to lead the Western Branch of the State Normal School in September 1913, conditional on the promise that under his leadership, the Western Branch would become an independent institution and chart its own future. To lay the foundation of a new vision ahead of the 1914 inauguration, the first academic year of the Lewis Administration is filled with landmark moments that established the school colors, the mascot, the future of athletics, and the name change to Fort Hays Kansas Normal School.

The official color of the school up until this point was Old Gold, reflecting the connection to its parent institution in Emporia. However, Lewis suggested a second color should be adopted to distinguish it from its affiliation with Emporia, recommending the use of black and gold. It is unclear whether the school colors were adopted before or after the tiger mascot debuted, but some claim that his suggestion for using black as a secondary color was to support his fondness of a tiger as a school mascot.

Rumors of the origin of the tiger vaguely suggest that Lewis had ties to Missouri, but neither his education nor his career were affiliated with the University of Missouri in Columbia. A closer look at his past reveals that his roots were scattered throughout the Midwest, with Missouri being the location of much of his young adult life; the Missouri Tigers established their athletic nickname in 1890 and must have had a strong fandom across the state by that time.

The FHSU tiger was first introduced on February 12, 1914, during a two-game series between the FHSU men’s basketball team and McPherson College. The standard basketball uniform had been an Old Gold jersey, but the players came out wearing jerseys with a hungry-looking tiger sewn on, marking the debut of the Normal Tigers. Whether legend or lore, it’s been said the tigers were down at the half, so they changed back to their Old Gold jerseys, regaining confidence and eventually defeating McPherson 36 to 27. They played McPherson again the next night, sporting the tiger jerseys for the full game, defeating their opponents a second time.

The Leader student newspaper stated, “they pinned their faith on the famished tiger and the hope that his desire for gore would be satisfied.” James Forsythe, who documented 100 years of FHSU’s history in Lighthouse on the Plains, claims “the goal was to end each athletic contest with a victory so the tiger on their jerseys would look content and satisfied.” In their recap of the basketball season, the 1914 Reveille yearbook puts quotes around the “Tigers,” marking its new identity and describing the team’s “fighting spirit.” The Tiger identity quickly took root with the 1915 Reveille reporting the scores for the athletic events as the Tigers vs. opponents and documenting several “athletic yells and airs” that cheer on the tigers. In less than a year under the Lewis Administration, a new identity was created and feverishly adopted - the Black and Gold Tigers.

VIEW THE VISUAL HISTORY OF THE NAME AND TIGER LOGOS FROM 1914 TO TODAY: FHSU.EDU/LIBRARY/UNIVERSITY-HISTORY

Shortly after those elements were established in the school’s identity, the school received a gift of bison in 1914 by C. W. Nutter; they were kept in a 15-acre pasture northwest of campus near present-day Rarick Hall and in sight of the railroad. Even though Lewis viewed the bison as important symbols to the frontier heritage of the college and used them for recruiting and public relations to help railroad passengers remember the campus, the seeds of the Tiger had already taken root. The Tigers had usurped the plains’ previous monarchs and would rule the prairie.

The inauguration on March 6, 1914, officially separated the school from its parent institution in Emporia and marked the beginning of the Fort Hays Kansas State Normal School and Lewis’s role as President.

Throughout his presidency, Lewis avidly supported the scheduling of athletic games, even when transportation at the time was challenging. In the early days, teams included students and faculty and played nearby high schools, town teams, or whoever they could schedule.

Also notable in 1914, the school was admitted to the Kansas Athletic Conference. The K Club was formed as one of the first student organizations, awarding 12 notable athletes with “K” letters. To build on this momentum, Lewis envisioned “a brand new Sunday-go-to-meeting grandstand” built on the athletic field so that “patrons in the future can be assured a good seat while watching contests” on the athletic field. Later deemed the original Lewis Field, this grandstand stood on the land between Forsyth Library and Malloy Hall. The grandstand he envisioned was completed in 1925 to seat 1,500 people when enrollment was 516 students.

In addition to the athletic field, the campus changed dramatically under Lewis, with walkways, landscaping, and mature trees creating an oasis between several newly built buildings: Sheridan Coliseum (1917), Elizabeth Custer Hall (1922), Cody Commons cafeteria (1923, later incorporated into Memorial Union), Forsyth Library (1926, now McCartney Hall), Science Hall (1928, now named Albertson Hall), and the power plant (1932) many of which have names influenced by Lewis’s interest in recognizing this area’s military history.

The legacy Lewis left behind transformed the identity and reputation of a branch of teacher education training toward a full-fledged liberal arts curriculum that valued music, athletics, and scholarship with the goal of developing alumni who embody the unconquerable spirit of the plains and lead a life of service, leadership, and high ambition. He was known for dreaming big and achieved great transformations that became deeply rooted in the FHSU identity.

After his death in 1933, the Lewis Field and Stadium we know today was named to honor President Lewis and was completed in 1938, which is its own story of innovation toward a grandiose vision of the future of the institution during the depression under President C. E. Rarick. But that’s another story.