Page 138 - University of Miami 2018-2019 Academic Planner

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It began in controversy. Some reports say the 1927 football team held a team meeting to select Hurricanes, hoping they would sweep away opponents just as the devastating storm did on September 16, 1926. Another version holds that Miami News columnist Jack Bell asked end Porter Norris of the 1926 team what the team should be called. Told that the local dignitaries and University officials wanted to name the team for a local flora or fauna, Norris said the players wouldn’t stand for it and suggested “Hurricanes” since the opening game had been postponed by such a storm. From time to time, opposition has arisen to the name that would “reinforce Miami’s negative reputation as a weather- beaten community living constantly under the threat of destruction.” But as one UM official rationalized in the 60’s, “Does anyone think Chicago is overrun by bears just because the town has a football team by that name?
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