Highly dubious....

Posted on: October 13, 2017 at 14:48:06 CT

The Columbia Tiger Company was the militia headed by Rollins, who was considered the father of the University of Missouri. Well documented. Considering this militia was formed and named in 1864, that's well ahead of any use of the Tiger moniker used by anyone in Princeton. Princeton started using the name "Tiger" in the late 1880s because reporters began calling them "tigers" because their school colors were Orange and Black and the football team sported orange stripes on their jersies, caps and stockings. The first official reference to Princeton as the Tigers is thought to be the name of the Senior class humor magazine, named the Princeton Tiger in 1882, almost 20 years after Rollins formed the Columbia Tiger Company.

While the University of Missouri football team may be have been called the "Tigers of the West" by some observers, that doesn't mean they took the name Tigers from Princeton. They took the name from the regiment headed by Rollins and then, both teams being Tigers, were referred to as the "Tigers of the West".