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1926

The Devil-Goat rivalry began 100 years ago with Eileen Kramer Dodd. Dodd joined the State Teachers College at Fredericksburg in 1926 as an education professor, sponsored the junior class, who decided that they wanted to have their own class mascot, eventually deciding on goats. To display this allegiance, members of the junior class paraded around campus in coordinated green outfits.

This display prompted the senior class to respond, electing the red devil as their class mascot. The mascots stuck around, with columns being placed in publications like The Bullet (the school newspaper) describing the rivalry and introducing freshmen to their new team.¹

(This analysis comes from the sources available to us during the process of the Devil-Goat Day Team’s research.)

The Battlefield, 1927

In some cases, especially in earlier mentions of the rivalry, teams are referred to as the “Evens” (Goats) and “Odds” (Devils), rather than by their mascots.

(This analysis comes from the sources available to us during the process of the Devil-Goat Day Team’s research.)

1. William Crawley, University of Mary Washington : A Centennial History, 1908-2008 (University of Mary Washington, 2008), 26. ↩︎

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