Ahoy mateys! Okay, that’s enough of that… I tried, I swear. Here’s part three of my “Mascot Memoirs” series, as I try to explain why ECU went with that swashbuckling bearded fellow wearing purple and gold.
What’s a “Pirate?”
Most of you are likely familiar with pirates, who despite being at their historical apex in the 17th and 18th centuries, have managed to stick around in modern times and lexicon. That of course, is largely due to Hollywood and literature, but the sports world has also endeared itself to these maritime marauders as mascots.
Pirates are well known for eye patches, parrots, peg legs and general pillaging, plundering and pilfering on the high seas. While the latter half of that sentence is more rooted in actual history, the former is certainly what’s become today’s pirate image.
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Why the “Pirates?”
ECU started out as a college training students to become educators and thus the sports teams at the school were called the “Teachers.” This lasted until 1934 when the Pirates moniker was adopted because the Men’s Athletic Association desired a name that provided “more spirit and enthusiasm,” according to late ECU historian Mary Jo Bratton.
The name also harkens back to the nearby North Carolina coast’s usage as a harbor for pirate ships in the 17th and 18th centuries. In fact, Edward Teach, or “Blackbeard” as you most likely know him, owned property in the area, and remains of his ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, were discovered in Beaufort in 1995.
Mascot History
The costumed Pirate mascot, PeeDee as he is unofficially called after once being officially named as such, has been around since 1983. Surprisingly, the costume was the same from then until it was “modernized” in 2008.
As for other mascots, ECU actually had an unofficial live dog mascot named Pete back in the mid-1970s. Pete is described on the university’s official athletics website as having “resembled the dog in the ‘Little Rascals’ movies” and having the “reputation of a back-alley brawler with an intense dislike for rams (the mascot at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and wolves (the mascot at NC State University).”
ECU has also had students dress as pirates and parrots for mascots from time to time, and even had a live wildcat as a mascot in 1930 and 1931.
“Mascot Memoirs” Series
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