When it comes to Rowan University’s school colors and mascot, there have been “a lot of myths” over the years, said Dr. Thomas Gallia ’66, M’67, M’70. In addition to serving as Rowan University Board of Trustee member, retired vice president for University Relations and former president’s chief of staff, Gallia has acted as the university’s de facto historian for decades.
One of the biggest of these myths is that Glassboro’s team name has always been the Profs. In fact, Glassboro Normal School had been in operation for nearly 25 years by the time the school’s athletic teams became known as the Profs. For a brief period before that, they were called the Yellowjackets.
Another myth is that the owl mascot is synonymous with the Prof name. The owl didn’t become an official mascot until Glassboro’s teams had already been known as the Profs for a decade.
The team name “Profs” dates back at least to 1948, inspired by Glassboro Normal School’s earliest beginnings. What could be a more fitting team name for a teacher-preparation school than “Professors”?
For the first several years of the Profs’ existence, the mascot wasn’t an owl at all. As then-football player and now professor emeritus Bill Kushner said, “The teams could not have someone dressed as a professor on the sidelines.” Glassboro needed a more recognizable symbol to represent the school and its teams.
The owl first came into the picture in 1955, when Glassboro cheerleaders sold “Professor Owl” stuffed animals as a fundraiser. They purchased an owl costume in November 1956 and Professor Owl was officially adopted as Glassboro’s mascot in 1957.
The likeness of Professor Owl has been reimagined over the decades, often by student artists and designers. Throughout the 1980s, Professor Owl began to appear at campus events beyond athletic competitions. “Let’s Hear it for the Profs,” a new fight song composed by College of Performing Arts Dean and Director of Bands John Pastin, was introduced in 1998.
Professor Owl finally received a name in 2007: Whoo RU, for the sound owls make and the institution’s initials.
One final misconception Gallia highlighted is the belief that brown and gold have always been Glassboro’s colors. For more than two decades during the school’s history, its colors changed.
The most widely accepted inspiration for the brown and gold colors Glassboro has used for most of its hundred-year history is the brown-eyed Susan. The story, attributed to longtime Glassboro employee Edie Huston, is that R. Grace Bagg used these flowers from the campus grounds to decorate the stage for the school’s first Commencement ceremony in 1924.
Minutes from a November 25, 1958, Council on Student Life meeting present a different explanation for the choice of school colors, still inspired by nature: the goldenrod flowers and oak leaves and acorns that had graced the school’s campus since the institution opened.
What’s certain is that President Bunce officially approved a switch to brown and orange in 1937 due to supply limitations in the fabric market.
In 1956, further problems procuring uniform fabric again put school colors back on the radar. The Students Council of Student Life voted unanimously to recommend a return to the original brown and gold colors in November 1958, reflecting the views of the majority of students, as well as faculty and alumni.
The restored brown and gold colors remain popular a half century later.