Sparky Origins: How ASU’s Mascot Came to Be
Before Arizona State University became what it is today, the school’s history runs deep into the 19th century.
The Territorial Normal School at Tempe was found in 1885 as a result of the legislature back in the day. The school started as an institution to teach the state’s future teachers. Since then, the school has gone through a number of changes according to Arizona Archives.
The school changed names numerous times in just a matter of years. Arizona Territorial Normal School (1889); Arizona Normal School (1896); Normal School of Arizona (1899) and Tempe Normal School (1901).
Regardless, the maroon and gold have been at the heart of Tempe ever since the late 1800s. But what about Sparky?
In 1945, Arizona State College soon looked into expanding their sports department. With that, came a name change and an entire rebranding.
Then, in 1946, the school mascot changed from the Bulldogs to the Sun Devil.
After a decade of Sparky, the school would be renamed from Arizona State College into permanently being known as Arizona State University.
Now, Arizona State University is one of the biggest schools in the country when just looking at student population with over 80,000 students spread out throughout the state of Arizona.
Along with the name change came Sparky. Sparky has seen a handful of changes from the mascot uniform, to the implementation of the pitchfork logo that was designed with the help of Nike and their marketing team in 2011.
In 2014, Arizona State University left Nike to pursue a deal with adidas. In doing so, the pitchfork would be no more and Sparky became the main logo and mascot again.
For the past half decade, Sparky and ASU have been at the forefront of sports, innovation and so much more.
If it’s not evident by now, Sparky and his legacy are here to stay.
