A co-worker and I were discussing the best college sports nicknames (I said it was Wake Forest Demon Deacons) and he suggested the Syracuse Orangemen. That got me to thinking, are they named for the Irish Protestant society the Orangemen?
I can’t find anything on Google or on the Syracuse webpage about the origin of “Orangemen”. This makes me suspicious that they are trying to play down the whole Protestant issue since they probably have tons of Catholics (and Irish Catholics) at their school. Is this true? What is the origin of the Orangemen mascot?
Given that it’s in NY, I’d bet it’s a more direct reference to the Netherlands colonial era (House of Orange, obliquely the reform/Calvinist church, et al) than to Ireland, although the issues are intertwined in a complicated way via the house of Orange and English dynastic politics. Someone else can explain that part better than I can.
Well, from a Manhattan perspective (“Anything north of Peekskill is northern New York State” ;)), Syracuse may appear to be northern, but as a longtime resident of Northern New York, I’d have to advise you that any Syracusan would tell you they live in Central New York, not up in Northern New York with us hicks. But yeah, compared to Orange County, Syracuse is definitely north.
Poly, to a Manhattanite, I live in ‘upstate’ New York, and I’m only about 10 miles from the Bronx. Orange County is ‘the country’ and north of that may as well be another continent.
Thanks for the cites Altor. It seems like just a coincidence. Also I didn’t know that Syracuse was founded by the Methodist Church (from one of your cites), which makes the Irish connection highly unlikely. Thanks.
I don’t see why being founded by the Methodist Church would make an Irish connection unlikely, after all Methodism is one of the largest denominations in Northern Ireland.
i’m at a student at syracuse and can tell you that the name comes from the updated school color of orange. as it has been said above, the colors were changed from pea green and pink to orange, and blue has been used as an unofficial secondary color. when the school color changed to orange, the mascot did not automatically become the orangemen, as their mascot was the saltine warrior(a fighting indian.) when this was deemed inappropriate, the school chose the orangemen as their name and the students unofficially named otto the orange their mascot. a few years ago, some people complained and said that the school needed to change their name again because they thought orangemen was just an updated way of mocking the native americans, and the school almost changed their name to the orange wolves(with a few other animals as alternatives.) this never went through though, and the orangemen stayed the name of the sports team and the name of the national nccaa champions.
syracuse is also in onondoga(spelling?) and not orange county
The Saltine Warrior (the salt industry was once big in Syracuse) was an S.U. mascot, was depicted as an American Indian and was discontinued in the 1970s. However I believe the team name was “Orangemen” before and during the use of the Warrior as a symbol. (sorry no cite)
According to this page (1993 numbers), only 4% of the population Northern Ireland are Methodist as opposed to 44% Presbyterian/Episcopalian and 35% Catholic.
But it does seem that the Methodists have been involved in the “troubles” and I should have said unlikely, not highly unlikely.