Contact: James Vinson, Sports Information Director - Illinois College, james.vinson@ic. edu

JACKSONVILLE, Illinois — The Blueboys and Lady Blues of Illinois College have a rich history originating from the years surrounding the Civil War.  

Illinois College was established by a group hoping to spread the power of education in the American West in the late 1820s. The “Yale Bands” set out to establish “beacons of enlightenment” to inform and educate American citizens in different regions and founded Illinois College in 1829. It was the first college to be built in Illinois.

The heritage that came west with the founders of the College was reflected in IC’s early philosophy. As a key value, the institution took a hard stance in favor of abolishing slavery. 

The first president of Illinois College, Edward Beecher, was an outspoken opponent of slavery and his sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was the author of the influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It was common throughout the 1840s and 1850s for abolitionists, including figures such as Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, to visit and speak at the College. 

This influence on IC students inspired them to fight for a cause they believed in. Nearly all students attending Illinois College in 1863 enlisted to fight in the Civil War on the side of the Union Army. The men who fought for the North were nicknamed for their blue uniforms: “The Blueboys.”  

After the war ended, many of the students returned to finish their education at Illinois College. 

As IC began to offer informal athletic teams, the student-athletes kept the Blueboys nickname. When organized competition began in collegiate athletics around the 1880s, the College continued to use the nickname for its teams. The name has since become a part of the culture at IC as the College’s official mascot.  

Opportunities for female athletics at IC evolved over the course of history as well.  Campus clubs and intramural competitions were offered at first, then formalized opportunities for female athletics began to emerge.  In the 1970s, the college adopted the nickname "Lady Blues" for their women athletic teams.
 
The logo for the teams here at the college have changed throughout the course of history.  A timeline of the school’s athletic logos is shown in the graphic above.
 

There have also been many creative attempts to showcase the Blueboys mascot artistically.  The logo shown on the image above was printed on the chairs used for the team benches at basketball games in the past.  The image below was used on the cover of the 1996 Sports Hall of Fame program.