What's in a name?
Buffalo State did not have an official mascot for its sports teams until 1969. For most of its early history, the sports teams were called the "Orange" and sometime the "Orangemen". This name was simply derived from the college's colors of orange and black.
Because the "Orange" and "Orangemen" nickname was often confused with the sports teams at Syracuse University that used the same moniker, Buffalo State men's basketball team adopted the nickname of the "Billies" during the 1950s, and for a few years the school's mascot was a goat. Other shortlived nicknames included the "Teachers", the "Normals" and the "Frontiersmen".
Finally, in 1969, a campus-wide contest was held to find a new, permanent name and mascot. On December 1, 1969, the Buffalo State "Orangemen" men's basketball team opened its regular season against Toronto University. At halftime, the winning nickname was announced, and Buffalo State returned from the locker room for the second half as the "Bengals" and have been known by that name ever since.
Susan Salazar, a Buffalo State student at the time, was also recognized during the halftime ceremony as the winning artist and designer of the Buffalo State Athletics logo. The winning design incorporated the words "Buffalo State College" into the body of a bengal tiger.
That logo was used by the athletics department until the current logo was designed during the 2001-2002 academic year. In that same year, Buffalo State officially dropped the "Lady" from the knickname of its women's teams, thus making the "Bengals" the official nickname for all of Buffalo State's varsity athletic teams.
