What's Up In The Missouri Valley 6/22/2020

Ummm … what the hell is your mascot?--The Athletic

Evansville Purple Aces

Chalk this one up in part to journalistic laziness.

After losing to Evansville 59-39 during the 1924-25 basketball season, Louisville coach Fred Enke reportedly told Evansville coach John Harmon, “You didn’t have four aces up your sleeve, you had five!” Harmon relayed the story to Evansville Courier sports editor Dan Scism, and the pair decided they liked Aces better than Pioneers, the school’s official nickname, in part because it was easier to fit a four-letter word into headlines.

Purple was the school’s official color, and by 1926, its teams were known as the Purple Aces. The team’s mascot, the somewhat unoriginally named Ace Purple, was introduced in the late ’60s and has undergone multiple facelifts over the ensuing four decades.

Former MSU star Blake Ahearn hired as Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach--Springfield News-Leader

Roommates Pickford, Phyfe provide brotherly leadership--Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier