Michigan State Spartans History

The School Colors

Details are sketchy as to when Michigan State athletic teams officially began using the school colors green and white. But records of the Athletic Association of the then Michigan Agricultural College show that on April 11, 1899, the organization took steps toward adoption of a green monogram, "to be worn only by athletes who subsequently take part in intercollegiate events."

It is generally thought the colors came into wide use with the arrival in 1903 of Chester L. Brewer as the school's first full-time director of athletics. Brewer also coached the Spartan football, basketball, baseball and track teams, the only varsity units in existence at the time.

Spartan Mascot

Sparty has gained great national visibility lately, a tribute to its cool design as well as to the efforts behind the MSUAA's mascot program.

He's our own jolly green giant. Lovable, huggable, and for Spartans of every age, ever so photo-poseable.

In the fall of 1995, MSU's beloved Sparty leaped into national celebrity in the same dramatic fashion that gymnast Kerri Strug vaulted into Olympian history at the Atlanta games. It happened when ESPN showed Sparty holding Strug--"Beauty and the Beast" style--in its national advertising campaign for "SportsCenter."

As "beasts" go, however, Sparty is way-cool. He's massive, but cartoon-cute. The seven-foot costume weighs in at 30 pounds, allowing enough flexibility for playful gestures and animation. To Spartan fans, his national popularity came as no surprise.

Here's a thumbnail sketch of Sparty's meteoric emergence:

In August, 1995, Sparty won the "leadership" award from his peers at the nation's largest mascot camp Milwaukee, WI.
Throughout the fall of 1995, Sparty starred in a series of ESPN ads promoting "SportsCenter," a campaign that probably reached every sports fan in America with cable TV.
To help attendance, Sparty was chosen to host the 1996 Homecoming Dance--re-christened "Sparty's Party"--featuring the Marvelettes and Gary Lewis and the Playboys.
Sparty starred in MSU's 30-second TV commercial beamed to the nation during ABC-TV's telecast of the Michigan football game Nov. 2, 1995. In this MTV-pace ad, Sparty rides a rocket ship, surfs the web, and does acrobatics.
Sparty reprised his ESPN appearance with Strug during halftime of the Indiana football game Nov. 9, 1995, carrying her to midfield to promote a gymnastics tour at Breslin Center that evening.

The Nickname

In 1926, Michigan State's first southern baseball training tour provided the setting for the birth of the "Spartan" nickname.

It all came about when a Lansing sportswriter imposed the silent treatment on a contest-winning nickname and substituted his own choice, the name that has lasted through the years.

In 1925, Michigan State College replaced the name Michigan Agricultural College. The college sponsored a contest to select a nickname to replace "Aggies" and picked "The Michigan Staters."

George S. Alderton, then sports editor of the Lansing State Journal, decided the name was too cumbersome for newspaper writing and vowed to find a better one.

Alderton contacted Jim Hasselman of Information Services to see if entries still remained from the contest. When informed that they still existed, Alderton ran across the entry name of "Spartans" and then decided that was the choice. Unfortunately, Alderton forgot to write down who submitted that particular entry, so that part of the story remains a mystery.

Rewriting game accounts supplied by Perry Fremont, a catcher on the squad, Alderton first used the name sparingly and then ventured into the headlines with it. (Incidentally, after two days of spelling the name incorrectly with an "o", Mr. Alderton changed it to Spartan on a tip from a close friend.) Dale Stafford, a sports writer for the Lansing Capitol News, a rival of the State Journal, picked up the name for his paper after a couple of days. Alderton called Stafford and suggested that he might want to join the Spartan parade and he did. As Mr. Alderton explains: "No student, alumnus or college official had called up the editor to complain about our audacity in giving the old school a new name, so we ventured into headlines with it. Happily for the experiment, the name took. It began appearing in other newspapers and when the student publication used it, that clinched it."