St. Petersburg College has Junior and Trojans removed from its name

By Times staff writer

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 9, 2001

When Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill in June that made St. Petersburg College a four-year school, thus removing the "Junior" from its name after 74 years, the college's Board of Trustees saw an opportunity to remove another name.

SPC's five varsity athletic programs no longer will be known as the Trojans. The teams will not have to endure the endless condom jokes, and the Trojan mascot has been removed from the Gibbs Campus' gymnasium floor.

A search for a new nickname has been underway all summer.

Students, alumni, faculty and staff on all six SPC campuses have been consulted. The school is trying to find not only a new nickname, but a new logo and official seal as well.

"None of our teams liked Trojans anyway," said Amelia Carey, SPC's director of institutional advancement and chairperson of the alumni committee, which is overseeing the name change.

"As you can imagine, there were a lot of jokes about the name," Carey said. "When we became a four-year school, that was our opportunity to make the change."

Carey said there have been hundreds of suggestions.

There were postings on all campuses about various meetings through the summer. In the sessions, anyone was able to make a suggestion or present a logo. It now is too late to submit ideas.

The list, culminated from those meetings, is being pared down by the Alumni Association's Board of Directors.

In the next few days, the panel will wrap up meetings with focus groups of 15-25 students and faculty members on all six sites to get a list of the top names and logos. That list will be whittled to three, then presented to the Board of Trustees during its Oct. 17 meeting, in which a final decision will be made.

"We really had a lot of good ideas," said Gary Megaloudis, chairperson of the alumni subcommittee in charge of finding a name. "We just want to make sure that we look at all the things we can before presenting it to the board.

"It's been a slow process, but we want it to be something that will last for years and years."

Carey said the committee is staying away from any names with violent connotations or that may offend certain groups, such as Native Americans. Some of the names mentioned were Sandpipers, Waves and Sharks.

"Most of all, we want to have a name that will remind people of this part of Florida," Carey said.

Once a name is selected, the school will go to work putting down a new logo on the St. Petersburg campus gym floor.

It may be too late for the winter teams -- men's and women's basketball -- to get new uniforms for the season. But the softball and baseball squads should have new logos on their uniforms for the spring. "A lot of people have spent their whole summer working on this," Carey said. "But think about it, it's not often that you have a chance to make an impact that will be felt many years down the road."

SPC will continue to compete as a two-year school and play against other junior colleges.

"There's no plan that I'm aware of to change that in the future," SPC athletic director Ed Long said.

NEW FORMAT: College volleyball has switched to the international format of rally scoring, which means a point is scored on every serve.

The change is to keep up with club and Olympic rules, which have switched to rally scoring.

Games now go to 30 points in the first four games. If a fifth game is needed for a best-of-five match, that game goes to 15 points. Also, let serves are allowed this season. If a serve hits the net and lands on the opponents side, it's in play.

One international rule not implemented is a back-row specialist. That is a player who may be inserted on the back line for defensive purposes then rotated out when the player reaches the front line.

The rules are in effect on every level of college volleyball.

"There were some heated discussions about it, that's for sure," said Vickie Grooms-Denny, Clearwater Christian's coach. "I happen to think it's a good change, but I may be in the minority," she said. "It increases competition. It emphasizes serving and defense. I think that's good for the game."

Eckerd coach Hollie Miller is a fan of the new system.

"I think it makes the game a lot faster," Miller said. "There's a point on every serve, so it emphasizes putting the ball away. It emphasizes the power game."

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