Why are the Johns Hopkins University athletic teams called the “Blue Jays”?
At first, the Johns Hopkins athletic teams were called simply “the Black and Blue,” based on the university’s athletic colors. Then, in 1920, some undergraduates launched a student humor magazine called The Black and Blue Jay. The “black and blue” came from the colors, of course, and the “Jay” most likely came from the “J” in Johns Hopkins. The student humor magazine became popular and began being quoted nationally in such publications as College Humor and The Literary Digest. In the spring of 1922, the News-Letter occasionally began to refer to Hopkins athletes as “Blue Jays,” most likely because some of the editors of The Black and Blue Jay and the News-Letter worked on both publications. The nickname didn’t immediately become the standard reference for several years. Both the News-Letter and other newspapers — such as The Sun and The Washington Post still referred to Hopkins athletes as “the Black and Blue” well into the 1920s. Sometimes they also referred to Hopkins players as the
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