Portland Pilots History

By the time the Reverend Alexander Christie was appointed Archbishop of Portland in 1898, the city had already emerged as a major metropolitan center in the Pacific Northwest. What was needed, Christie said soon after his arrival on the scene, was a school that would furnish a "superior education unequaled by any institution on the Pacific Coast."

Tradition has it that while traveling aboard ship along the Willamette River one day, Christie noticed a large building atop Waud's Bluff. When he learned that it was West Hall (renamed Waldschmidt Hall in 1992, in honor of the late Most Rev. Paul E. Waldschmidt, C.S.C., president of the University from 1962-1978), the site of the defunct Portland University founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1891, Christie decided to purchase it (with financial assistance from the Congregation of Holy Cross) for the school of his vision. He named it "Columbia University" after the mighty river that flowed nearby, and when it opened its doors on September 5, 1901, it was staffed with priests from the archdiocese.

Christie was practical enough to know that his school needed more than he was able to provide through the archdiocese, and he approached the Congregation of Holy Cross's Indiana Province with a challenge: "Take over Columbia and make it the Notre Dame of the Pacific Northwest!" The challenge was accepted, and the following September the C.S.C.s, as they were called, assumed ownership. Christie's challenge had special meaning to the C.S.C.s, for in 1841 several members of their order had traveled from France and founded the University of Notre Dame in the woods of Indiana. The success of Notre Dame in the years that followed, and the deep commitment of the Congregation of Holy Cross to education, assured Christie that his own vision would one day be realized.

Columbia University achieved junior college status in 1922, and the first junior college class graduated the following year. In 1925, the College of Arts and Sciences was founded; four years later the first bachelor's degrees were awarded to a class of seven men.

In the 1930s, the University's name was changed to the University of Portland, the St. Vincent Hospital School of Nursing became part of the University as the College of Nursing, and the School of Business was created.

In 1948, the School of Engineering was created. The University established its Graduate School in 1950 and the School of Education in 1962. In 1967 the Holy Cross order transfered ownership of the University to a lay Board of Regents.

Today some 3,100 students and approximately 240 faculty are engaged in teaching and research on the campus once on the edge of the American wilderness. The University has garnered national honors from U.S. News and World Report magazine and Barron's Best Buys as one of the best teaching universities in the West, and was honored by the Templeton Foundation as one of 100 colleges in America especially adept at education of character. In many ways the University has not swerved an inch from Archbishop Christie's dream in 1901--to provide a "superior education unequaled by any institution on the Pacific Coast."

The Mascot and School Colors

In 1935, with University adminstrators tired of being confused with New York’s Columbia University, they chose the University of Portland, after other names were considered: Christie University (after the school’s founder, Portland Archbishop Alexander Christie), Multnomah University (after the Chinookan name for the Willamette River) and McLoughlin University (after great Oregon Catholic pioneer, Dr. John McLoughlin).

According to Bluff legend, though the original nickname that students chose in a 1935 contest resulted in “Chinooks” (after the Indian tribe that inhabited the area, and the largest of the salmon species in the Willamette River), the “Pilots” was chosen by presidential fiat. From that day forward, the Bluff had a new mascot, and he was Wally Pilot.

When the University changed its name from Columbia University (its earliest sports teams were known as the Cliffdwellers or the Columbias), to the University of Portland, the name and University had already begun to adapt a more “nautical motif,” suitable for a campus site overlooking the Willamette River. At the same time, the Pilot athletic teams became associated with Wally (a stylized riverboat pilot), and the pilot’s wheel became the logical logo. The many student associations and publications on campus followed the nautical theme - from the student newspaper - The Beacon - to what is today the University’s bookstore, student cafe and campus ministry center (The Pilot House).

The school colors of purple and white originated in the late 19th century when the short-lived Methodist college called Portland University’s athletic teams were known as the Webfoots or Portlands, and its colors were gold and purple.

So, what is a “Pilot”? Common to rivers and the large vessels which must negotiate their waters, riverboat pilots are charged with safely escorting large ships, barges and other river traffic through the unfamiliar waters, in order to get the vessels to port. Primarily through the use of tugboats, riverboat pilots are as vital to boat and barge captains, as air traffic controllers are to airplane pilots.

Today, the University of Portland is the only NCAA-affiliated university which uses the “Pilots” nickname. Two NAIA-affiliated colleges - Louisiana State University-Shreveport, and Bethel College in Indiana - also are “Pilots” by nickname.