MAKING
A MASCOT
by Nate Hoekstra
photos courtesy
University Archives,
supplied
Dan Castle as
the first
Great Laker.
IT WAS A CHILLY JANUARY
NIGHT IN 1965 WHEN THE
THEN-GRAND VALLEY STATE
COLLEGE'S BASKETBALL TEAM
TOOK TO THE COURT AND
DEFEATED THE MUSKEGON
COMMUNITY COLLEGE TEAM IN
A CLOSE GAME, MARKING THE
FIRST-EVER INTERCOLLEGIATE
WIN FOR A GVSC TEAM.
But the team jerseys that night didn't bear the
name of a mascot, or even a nickname. The early
colleges had no athletic identity. It would take
more than three decades for the Grand Valley
mascot to come to be the Louie that students
and alumni know and love today.
33
Grand Valley Magazine
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GVMagazineSpring2016