HERO Sports is counting down the 100 days until the kickoff of the 2018 college football season on Saturday, Aug. 25, with daily trivia. Each day, from May 17 through Aug. 24, we'll publish one college football trivia question.
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Akron is the only NCAA school whose nickname is Zips. And they've had that nickname — or a longer version, Zippers — for nearly a century. But why?
Why is Akron called the Zips?
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Answer
In 1927, Akron held a contest to choose a nickname for the school's athletic teams. One suggestion, from student Margaret Hamlin, proposed Zippers, in honor of a rubber overshoe sold by B.F. Goodrich Co., based in Akron. The name was chosen and Hamlin won $10.
In 1950, then-athletics director Kenneth Red Cochrane shortened it to Zips.
One of the more memorable nicknames in intercollegiate athletics — the Zips — belongs to The University of Akron.
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