The Maroons and the Mascot

Why the Maroons?

A century ago, Roanoke's athletic competition was mostly intramural. In 1907, the student-run baseball team needed new uniforms and couldn't find any available in the Roanoke's colors of blue and gold. (Yes, Roanoke's old colors and current academic colors are blue and gold). But they did find Maroon uniforms.

Students thought the Maroon uniforms were funny, and The Brackety Ack started to call the team the "Maroon and Grays." Then a few years later, basketball jumped on the Maroon bandwagon and began to compete as the Maroons in 1911. A few years after that, the College administration officially adopted Maroon and Gray as the school's athletic colors. Maroon eventually won over the Gray, and the Maroon moniker has stuck with all Roanoke College teams since!

Official colors:

Rooney, the Maroon Mascot

In 2009, Rooney beat out five other finalists to become Roanoke's first-ever official mascot. Rooney is a "Maroon-tailed" hawk, a little known but clever breed that is found only in the vicinity of the Roanoke College campus. Rooney considers himself one of the gang, and is very proud of his fellow Maroons.

In addition to being the official Maroon Mascot, Rooney is the College's director of Maroon spirit initiatives and is an occasional guest lecturer on the topic of ornithology. Rooney's office is located on the Front Quad, in the historic Bittle Tree. (There are no regular office hours).

Learn more about Rooney.

Roanoke Will Always be the Maroons

The addition of a mascot did not change the name Maroons. Roanoke isn't alone in having a mascot that's different from the team name. Other prominent institutions include the UNC Tarheels (ram), Virginia Tech Hokies (turkey), the Miami Hurricanes (ibis) and the Alabama Crimson Tide (elephant).