If you’re from the area near a college or went there, you probably know why your quirky team name is what it is, but for the rest of us, let the truth be told.

Stanford Cardinal

Look closely — the prestigious California university’s team name is the Cardinal, not cardinals. That refers to the shade of red, not the bird (that’s also that shade of red). It’s similar to the Cincinnati Reds, or other color-based team names. The actual mascot of the team is the Stanford Tree, based on a redwood near the school’s campus called the El Palo Alto, which appears in the university’s seal.

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Those two things seem to cancel each other out — a demon who also helps lead a church service? It’s all thanks to a clever but of writing on the part of the Baptist college’s student newspaper. In 1923, Wake Forest beat Duke University in a football game, which Old Gold & Black editor Mayon Parker attributed to the teams “devilish” play, wryly nicknaming them the Demon Deacons. College brass like it so much that they adopted it as the official mascot name.

Purdue Boilermakers

No, they’re not referring to the alcoholic drink — a shot of whiskey dropped in a beer and consumed quickly. In the 1890s, the Indiana college had a reputation as a working class college, and after playing a game against Wabash College, a newspaper referred to the unnamed Purdue squad as “burly boiler makers.” In other words, it was a disparaging remark about how its students and their parents were the kind of people who would work in a boiler room in a building or ship. Instead, the Purdue community “owned” the insult with pride and took on it as their nickname.

Akron Zips

The Ohio college is located in Akron, of course, also where the B.F. Goodrich Company was founded in 1870. One of the company’s major products in the early 20th century were rubber boots nicknamed “zippers” because they had zippers on them. Those overshoes were such a part of Akron life that when the college held a contest to name the athletic teams in 1925, freshman Margaret Hamlin’s suggestion of “Zippers” won. In 1950, it was officially shortened to the zippier “Zips.

Penn State Nittany Lions

There is no such animal as the Nittany Lion. However, in the 19th century, mountain lions were a common sight on Mount Nittany in Pennsylvania. (It got its name from Nit-A-Nee, an Algonquian word meaning “mountain.”) In 1907, a Penn State senior named Joe Mason put the two local references together to create the school’s mascot: the Nittany Lion.