Utah Tech Joins April Fools Festivities With New Old Name

Contrary to popular belief, April Fools isn’t just a trendy day for your co-worker to pull a lame joke or for Grandpa to be confused at the “breaking” news he just saw on Facebook.

It’s also a prime opportunity for sporting organizations and clubs to get their poor fans in a “gotcha moment”.

This tomfoolery is accomplished by athletic social media pages teasing a new uniform, helmet, playing surface or the like on “All Fools Day”.

For example:

Arizona State today debuted a brand new football field, a totally maroon playing surface:

This is absolutely an April Fools joke, but one that many could end up believing.

The Utah Tech Trailblazers decided to throw their hat in the ring to celebrate and in doing so mixed the present with the past:

The tweet implies that the university, currently known as the “Trailblazers” would be bringing back the “Red Storm” moniker, the teams name from 2009 to 2016.

The image features the teams logo used back in 2009, a spinning red twister with the face of a bull, sitting at midcourt of the new Utah Tech basketball floor.

The baselines still featuring “Utah Tech” sit underneath the sideline text of #rollstorm and UTAHTECHREDSTORM.COM.

Get it? The Utah Tech Red Storm, a dash of the past mixed with the now.

Utah Tech fans can appreciate the joke, if they aren’t too worried about it being reality.

Most seemingly didn’t care much for the Red Storm era of the university and for the good people of St. George another name change might strike a chord.

Dating all the way back to 1911, the university has been known as:

St. George Stake Academy

Dixie Academy

Dixie Normal College

Dixie Junior College

Dixie College

Dixie State College

Dixie State University

Utah Tech University

Name changes in the university may be numerous but are expected as the school bolsters it’s status, such as growing from a junior college to a University over time.

What may not be as expected is the sheer volume of different mascots and team names.

The school was using the “Flyers” nickname back in 1924 using it all the way up until 1951, when they gave that name up to Dixie High School, who they shared a campus and institution status with until 1963.

“Rebels” was next on the docket, debuting in 1951 as the official mascot for the college side of it all.

This “Rebels” name would stay in St. George in different iterations up until 2009.

Certain more controversial pieces were cut off here and there such as banning any logos or imagery similar to that of the confederate battle flag back in 1993.

This also included officially shelving the original “Rodney the Rebel” mascot in 2002, 22 years after his first appearance, going for a more modernized adventurer type of Rodney instead of the confederate soldier.

That lasted three years before they got rid of the concept of a human as a whole being the mascot and switched fully to the animal kingdom.

“Reb the Red Hawk” was first up to bat for the Dixie State Rebels, as the muscular red and blue bird held down the fort for four years until DSC did away with the “Rebels” branding altogether.

That’s when the aforementioned Red Storm imaging went down in 2009, a change that would last all the way to 2016.

Not only was Red Storm replacing Rebels but a new mascot would be in order.

That same year the school would introduce “Ragin Red” a black bull to match the face found in the tornado logo.

That bull soon went to market as two years later in 2011, “Big Dee” was introduced, a much meaner, scarier looking red bull who helped usher in the era of becoming a University.

When Dixie State College became Dixie State University in 2013, the Red Storm moniker was only 4 years old, but with higher status comes higher expectations and the Red Storm alongside Big Dee would evaporate in 2016, making way for the “Trailblazers.”

Trailblazers is now going on nearly 10 years strong, meaning the newest mascot, “Brooks the Bison” is the 2^nd longest tenured mascot in school history behind the original Rodney the Rebel.

So when you think of the Utah Tech Trailblazers and their history, pack a lunch, because it’s a long and windy road.

Considering all things, the Utah Tech Red Storm isn’t too far out of reach, after all sometimes these jokes become the reality.

Happy April Fools and Roll Zers!