Basketball Team Nicknames 2 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Falcons

The Air Force Academy is based in Colorado Springs, CO and is primarily a member of the Mountain West Conference. The name "Falcon" was selected as the school nickname by the academy's first graduating class in 1959. Legendary San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich played four years for the Falcons, and was team captain in his senior season in 1970.

After five years of service overseas, he began his coaching career as an assistant for six years at his alma mater. Over on the gridiron, another famous professional coach manned the sidelines for the Air Force - Super Bowl winning head coach Bill Parcells' first head coaching job in his career was with the Falcons.

It was a rough start though as he went 3-8 in his one and only season in 1978.

Answer: Mountaineers

The Appalachian State Mountaineers are primarily members of the Sun Belt Conference and play in Boone, NC amidst the mountain range for which they are named. The Mountaineers moved from the FCS second tier of college football to the top flight in 2014 after claiming three consecutive national championships from 2005 to 2007, the first university to claim three straight national championships since World War II and the consolidation of the sport. Appalachian State was thrust into the national spotlight in 2007 when they defeated Michigan and became the first FCS team to defeat a ranked FBS opponent. Michigan paid for the Mountaineers to travel to Ann Arbor and play the game.

Answer: Cardinals

The Ball State Cardinals from Muncie, Indiana have been long-time members of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). The "Cardinals" were chosen in a student body poll in 1927. The 2008 football team ran the table in the MAC and was 12-0 before an upset loss to Buffalo in the conference championship game in Detroit.

Head coach Brady Hoke subsequently left the university to take on future head coaching gigs at San Diego State and Michigan. Long-time basketball coach at Utah Rick Majerus also coached at Ball State for a two seasons in the late 1980s.

Answer: Purple Aces

There are not too many purple schools on the college landscape but the Evansville Purple Aces are one of them. The Purple Aces were originally in Division II of most sports but moved to Division I in 1977 on the backs of their men's basketball program that had claimed five national championships in a 13 year period from 1959-71.

Their entire basketball team tragically perished in that first DI season in 1977 when their chartered plane crashed on takeoff to a game in Tennessee.

Answer: Cougars

Brigham Young University (often referred to as BYU) is owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the overwhelming majority of its players are members of the church. As a result, the school prohibits any sporting events on the day of the Sabbath, Sunday. Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young attended BYU before moving on to the NFL, perhaps he had no choice as he is the great-great-great-nephew of the school's namesake.

Answer: Racers

"Racers" was adapted as the official nickname of Murray State University in 1961. The school in Murray, Kentucky had originally gone by the "Thoroughbreds", as a nod to the rich horse racing history in the state. "T-Breds", "Breds", and "Racers" amongst other nicknames became common abbreviations in both media and colloquial conversation. Murray State is a charter member of the Ohio Valley Conference. Murray State has achieved prolonged success in a rather niche sport on the NCAA sphere - their co-ed rifle team has three national championships and many alums have become Olympians.

Answer: Spiders

The etymology of "Spiders" is rather uncertain and a few tales exist of how the school, which began as the "Colts" in 1876 became the only NCAA university to use an arachnid as their mascot. Richmond's flagship sport has been their men's basketball team, the architects of some historical upsets in the NCAA tournament over their history.

Some of their signature wins include the 1991 defeat of Syracuse, the first ever win by a #15 seed over a #2, and a 1984 win over a Charles Barkley-led Auburn Tigers team.

Answer: Catamounts

"Catamounts" are another term for the large cats such as bobcats that are found in to the forests and mountains around the school in Cullowhee, North Carolina. Like many school nicknames, it evolved from an on campus student contest in 1933. Most of the Catamount teams play in the Southern Conference. Ronnie Carr's three pointer early in the season opener for the men's basketball team in 1980 was the first recorded three pointer in NCAA history.

The ball he made the shot with is on display at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Answer: Leopards

The annual football game between Lafayette College (Easton, PA) and nearby Lehigh University is the oldest running college football rivalry in the nation. The first game was held in 1884 (the Leopards won convincingly 56-0) and the series is simply referred to by both schools as "The Rivalry".

The concept of the football "huddle" was also developed at Lafayette, by head coach Herb McCracken in 1924. Students voted early in the 20th century to adopt the alliterative "Lafayette Leopards" moniker over the "Maroons" nickname they had been given based on the color of their uniforms. Outside of the Ivy League, the small private liberal arts college was one of the last to begin offering academic scholarships to student-athletes, not relenting until 2006.

Answer: Wildcats

Davidson College (Davidson, NC) has just under two thousand students, but in 2008 one of them was future NBA superstar Stephen Curry. Curry became a national name in the NCAA tournament, leading the Wildcats to the Elite Eight with wins over Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin before a two point loss to top seeded Kansas. Curry would be drafted 7th overall that summer to the Golden State Warriors but that did not make him the highest drafted Wildcat ever.

In 1965, Fred Hetzel was drafted first overall by those same Warriors (then known as the San Francisco Warriors).

Hetzel was an all-American and Davidson was 66-13 while he was in the lineup.