What The Heck Is A Shocker, And Why Is It Wichita State's Mascot?

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What the heck is a Shocker, and why is it Wichita State's mascot?

• Published: Mar. 26, 2015, 1:00 p.m.

By

• Cheryl Wray

Loyola-Chicago v Wichita State

(Peter G. Aiken)

As Wichita State prepares to meet Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2015 NCAA basketball tournament (Thurs., 6:15 p.m. CT), there are plenty of questions that can be asked of the teams and the matchup.

The most important, though, may be:

What the heck is a Shocker, and why is it Wichita State's mascot?

The Shocker is truly one of the most unique mascots in college athletics; it can also be quite confusing.

(In fact, Chris Webber recently called the mascot an "angry Spongebob Squarepants." )

Wichita State, according to the school's athletic website, is named the Shockers because of the practice of "shocking" (harvesting) wheat in Kansas.

In the school's early days, most student athletes earned college money working all Summer in the fields harvesting and threshing wheat. In 1904, the nickname "Wheat Shockers" was used for the first time for the basketball team.

Kansas is still considered the "wheat state" and Sedgewick County, where Wichita is located, is the largest wheat producing county in the state.

Eventually, the name was shortened simply to the Shockers.

And the costumed mascot?

The mascot depicts a shock, or bundle, of wheat.

In 1948, the student who won a contest to design a Shockers mascot said that "the school needed a mascot who gave a tough impression...with a serious, no-nonsense scowl."

In a later contest, the name Wu Shock was selected for the mascot.

Cheryl Wray [email protected]