Contact: Ted Schultz, Sports Information Director - Grinnell College, schultzt@grinnell.edu

GRINNELL, Iowa — Grinnell’s long and proud tradition in athletics can be traced back to just after the Civil War. In 1868, Grinnell won the first intercollegiate baseball contest to be played in the state, defeating the University of Iowa (though the score is unknown).
 
That in itself lent itself to the nickname Pioneers, though the most famous single athletic pioneering activity was to happen two decades later. Accepting a challenge from the University of Iowa to play the first intercollegiate football game west of the Mississippi River, Grinnell walked away with a 24-0 victory on Nov. 16, 1889.
 
The nickname Pioneers can be seen as early as 1887 when George Augustus Gates became the institution’s second president. According to the pamphlet A History of Athletics at Grinnell College, Gates “initiated a new era for Grinnell College, an era characterized by the rapid development of new ideas and dramatic changes of method. There was a sudden leap from past into the future. Grinnell became a pioneer in the social sciences and made long strides in both the natural sciences and humanities. The college was alive with new ideas and contagious activity.”
 
That pioneering attitude carried over to athletics, where it remains today.
   
Grinnell’s longtime athletics logo is the recognizable Honor G. The official emblem of Grinnell College athletics, it was first worn in competition at the Third Annual State Field Meet held in Des Moines, June 3, 1892. Prior teams competed without any emblem.
 
Designed by E.W. "Skip" Atherton, class of 1895, the original Honor G consisted of a scarlet maltese cross with a black "I and "C" (for Iowa College) superimposed on the cross. Two years later in 1894, the "I" and "C" were replaced by a black gothic "G", and the modern-day Honor G was born.
 
The gothic "G", which was also used on letter sweaters and is now used on letter jackets, was replaced by an Old English "G" in the mid-1930's. After some protest, it was quickly changed back to the gothic "G", and it has remained unchanged since that time.