The green and gold does show up well at the finish line, but nowadays they use computer cameras, so it is less of a problem as it was in the 60s and 70s."Įastern Michigan University Athletic Directors Through the YearsĮMU has had a track representative at the summer Olympic Games since Hayes Jones in 1960. It also differentiates us from MSU and Ohio University's color schemes. "We have worn it ever since, and it is known from coast to coast, as our men have done traditionally well nationally. Our administration could hardly argue with me, since our gridders were wearing it too. At first, they weren't going to let us use them, but I pointed out that our football team was wearing green and gold. When they made us get rid of the orange and green, I ordered green and gold, colors I had always liked. We wore them for about four years, but the Regents decided that all of our teams should be wearing green and white. I decided to copy them and ordered orange shorts and green singlets with white lettering trimmed in orange. "Back then, Kansas was a big name in collegiate track, and they wore pink shorts and powder blue singlets with pink lettering. At that point, I decided to get uniforms that showed up better. You could hardly see the runners under the dark balcony area, and they got the finish wrong. When the finish positions were announced, we got the short end of the stick. MSU's uniforms were almost identical to ours. In the hurdle final, there were six men, three from Michigan State and three from EMU. In that season, we ran a meet at Western Michigan University, and the finish line was beneath the balcony which was very dark. "When I got to EMU in January 1967, the team was wearing dark green singlets and dark green shorts. EMU Hall of Fame Head Coach Bob Parks offered some insight to the story behind how the yellow came about. There is a reason these teams stand out, and the history behind it goes back to 1967. The EMU Eagles' colors are green and white, but the track and cross country teams both feature yellow on their uniforms. The other two final names submitted were Green Hornets and Express. The EMU Board of Regents voted to replace the Huron name with Eagles, taken from three recommendations from a committee charged with supplying a new nickname. At that time, four colleges, 62 high schools and 33 junior high/middle schools in Michigan used Indian logos or names. The report indicated that the use of Native American names, logos and mascots for athletic teams promoted racial stereotypes. The runner-up name in that contest was Pioneers.ĮMU began investigating the appropriateness of its Huron Indian logo after the Michigan Department of Civil Rights issued a report in October 1988 suggesting that all schools using such logos drop them. Hanner was working at the Huron Hotel at the time of the contest and was no doubt as much influenced by his place of employment as by the Huron Indian tribe. The name was submitted by two students, Gretchen Borst and George Hanner. Elmer Lyman and Professor Bert Peet, selected the name "Hurons" from the many entries in the contest. 31 of that year, a three-person committee, composed of Dr. The "Hurons" first came into being as the result of a contest sponsored by the Men's Union in 1929. The Eagles name was officially adopted on May 22, 1991, when the EMU Board of Regents voted to replace the existing Huron nickname and logo with the new one.ĮMU originally went by the nicknames "Normalites" and "Men from Ypsi" and various other titles down through the years before "Hurons" was adopted in 1929. Since the 1991 season, Eastern Michigan University athletic teams have gone by the nickname "Eagles."
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