New Mexico State Aggies
| New Mexico State Aggies | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| University | New Mexico State University |
| Conference |
Western Athletic Conference (except football) Sun Belt Conference (football only) |
| NCAA | Division I FBS |
| Athletic director | Mario Moccia |
| Location | Las Cruces, New Mexico |
| Varsity teams | 16 |
| Football stadium | Aggie Memorial Stadium |
| Basketball arena | Pan American Center |
| Baseball stadium | Presley Askew Field |
| Soccer stadium | Soccer Athletic Complex |
| Mascot | Pistol Pete |
| Nickname | Aggies |
| Fight song | Aggie Fight Song |
| Colors | Crimson and White |
| Website | www |
New Mexico State University's teams are called the Aggies, a nickname derived from the university's agricultural beginnings. The mascot is known as "Pistol Pete". NMSU's colors are crimson and white. The Aggies compete in the Western Athletic Conference in all men's and women's sports except football, in which the Aggies are a member of the Sun Belt Conference. The athletic director is Mario Moccia, who has held the position since January 2015.
New Mexico State sponsors six men's and eleven women's teams in NCAA sanctioned sports:
Men's Intercollegiate Sports
Women's Intercollegiate Sports
The "Aggies" nickname derives from the university's agricultural roots and status as a land grant institution. Prior to 2000 the women's intercollegiate athletic teams were known as the Roadrunners, placing NMSU among the handful of NCAA Division I schools which had separate nicknames and mascots for its men's and women's programs. By the late 1990s sentiment began to grow for the university to adopt a single, uniform mascot for all its athletic teams, and during the 1999–2000 academic year the school's female student athletes voted to adopt the "Aggies" moniker. NMSU's women's teams officially became the Aggies at the start of the 2000–2001 academic year.
For many years, NMSU's athletics logo was a caricature of gunfighter Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton which is identical to the logo used by Oklahoma State. A block "NM STATE" logo was introduced in the late 1990s as a universal logo that could be used for both the Aggie and Roadrunner athletic programs.
The current athletics logo was initially designed in 2005 as part of a controversial plan to remake the university's image on the national stage; Pete's pistol was replaced with a lasso, and his name was briefly officially abbreviated to simply "Pete". In addition to the new logo, the costumed mascot seen at games was also given a new look, losing his six shooters and holster belt in favor of a lasso. The disarming of Pete led to a massive uproar among students, alumni and outsiders demanding the return of Pete's guns. Popular T-shirts worn around campus featured the old Pistol Pete logo modified to show an oversized gun in his hand, with the slogan “Who Brings a Lasso to a Gunfight?” The decision was even criticized by Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly during his "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day" segment. The most popular nickname given to the widely unpopular new mascot was "Lasso Larry". After one year the university dumped the cartoonish mascot in favor of a real student dressed in more traditional cowboy attire, carrying a holster belt and six shooters, and wearing nothing on his head but a black cowboy hat. The "Pistol Pete" name was also restored. In 2007, NMSU modified the "Lasso Larry" logo to remove the lasso and once again depict Pistol Pete carrying pistols, and this is now the official athletics logo.
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Wikipedia