Topic: Marshall Thundering Herd nickname..

[The E-Man]

Interesting read about our nickname I came across this info..

The story goes that the school could never really decide on a mascot in the early 1900s after they officially decided ?Indians? wasn?t the way to go around 1910. After that, local sportswriters were referring to the team by a bunch of different names.
One writer infamously really made a push for ?Booger Cats? all the way through the 1930s

I'm glad we don't have either of those nicknames. However, we were called "The Big Green", before changing the name to the Thundering Herd. I'm so happy we have a very different nickname that sets us apart from other teams.

[Garbanjo]

Thundering Herd is the best out there baby

Go Herd!

[2xBison]

I knew some of that history but didn't realize that it was the 60s when we became Thundering Herd


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[pdunn]

Southern Cal is also sometimes referred to as the Thundering Herd.

[bbcard1]

I have unsuccessfully lobbied for The Truculent Possums. I can just picture the mascot hanging from its tail from the goal post.

[Ovaltine Jenkins]

(After further research) Prior to school integration in the state, Park Central High School in Bluefield was nicknamed the Thundering Herd beginning in 1949. The legend is that the school's principal after observing a group of students stampeding their way to the lunch room, that he remarked that they looked like a thundering herd.

https://www.bdtonline.com/news/local_news/2014-genoa-park-central-reunion-closes-with-event-at-sims-youth-center/article_a67b9be2-2108-11e4-8b1d-0019bb2963f4.html

[Flat Tire 2]

I can remember MU using both the Big Green and Thundering Herd. Thundering Herd had been used since the 1920's. We still use both names in different ways.
"In 1958 the Marshall student body, without input from the faculty, administration or alumni, decided that two nicknames wouldn't do and held a vote to settle the issue. Along with Thundering Herd and Big Green, one group of students bought a turkey as a suggested mascot and promoted the name Green Gobblers.

The students voted on Big Green as the nickname, but the media continued to use Thundering Herd to refer to the teams.

In the fall of 1964 Marshall president Stewart Smith appointed a faculty-student committee to suggest a more permanent nickname, feeling that Big Green denoted no action and was not appropriately symbolic. The nine-member committee narrowed its field to Big Green, Thundering Herd and Rams, which had been suggested by Huntington businessman Leonard Samworth, a past president of the alumni association.

On January 5, 1965, over 85 percent of the Marshall students picked Thundering Herd above the others and chose the buffalo as the official mascot and green and white as the official school colors."
https://herdzone.com/sports/2018/6/11/mars-trads-html.aspx

I can remember Mr. Samworth, who owned the Ohio Valley Bus Company, pushing the name of Rams "Rally Around Marshall". My Mother was attending summer school at MU working on her Master Degree in the 1950's. She took me into the MU Bookstore located in Old Main to get me a Marco t shirt, I was attending summer school at Jenkins Hall while she had classes. I wish I had saved that shirt.

[Flat Tire 2]

When Huntington Herald-Dispatch sportswriter Duke Ridgley referred to a late-1920s squad as a Thundering Herd, after a then-current movie based on the 1925 Zane Gray novel of the same name, it caught on quickly. Both Thundering Herd and Big Green have been used in reference to Marshall ever since.
https://herdzone.com/sports/2018/6/11/mars-trads-html.aspx

Mr. Ridgley also started the nickname Pony Express for Huntington High School. That was another unique nickname for a high school.

[parshall2marshall]

Mr. Ridgley also started the nickname Pony Express for Huntington High School. That was another unique nickname for a high school.

HHS's own.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059786/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

[Garbanjo]

HHS's own.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059786/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

Another fantastic nickname!

Pony Express baby

[coalherd]

When Huntington Herald-Dispatch sportswriter Duke Ridgley referred to a late-1920s squad as a Thundering Herd, after a then-current movie based on the 1925 Zane Gray novel of the same name, it caught on quickly. Both Thundering Herd and Big Green have been used in reference to Marshall ever since.
https://herdzone.com/sports/2018/6/11/mars-trads-html.aspx

Mr. Ridgley also started the nickname Pony Express for Huntington High School. That was another unique nickname for a high school.

Very true, FT2.  Can remember my days at MU in the 60s (please, no SMART cracks about my memory of EONS ago!!).  Both Ernie Salvatore and George Rorrer, the main beat writers/sports columnists of Huntington's TWO papers in those days, occasionally referred to the TH nickname and the Zane Gray's western novel!!

[MCA23]

Interesting read about our nickname I came across this info..

The story goes that the school could never really decide on a mascot in the early 1900s after they officially decided ?Indians? wasn?t the way to go around 1910. After that, local sportswriters were referring to the team by a bunch of different names.
One writer infamously really made a push for ?Booger Cats? all the way through the 1930s

I'm glad we don't have either of those nicknames. However, we were called "The Big Green", before changing the name to the Thundering Herd. I'm so happy we have a very different nickname that sets us apart from other teams.

I always get a laugh at "Booger Cats" lol.  Oh what could have been lol!

[Flat Tire 2]

I just did an internet search of booger cat. Only one reference I found is below. from out Wayne.

https://sites.google.com/site/waynecountyhistoryportal/artifact/the-booger-cat