Alabama was known as the Thin Red Line late in the first decade of the twentieth century, but about the time of World War I the sports editor of the Birmingham Age-Herald, Hugh Roberts, began calling the team the Crimson Tide. Zipp Newman of the Birmingham News joined in popularizing the name, which caught on quickly. 'Bama fans also sometimes refer to their team as the Red Elephants, an informal nickname dating to 1930 when Atlanta Journal sportswriter Everett Strupper compared Alabama linemen to elephants in a 64-0 demolishing of Mississippi. Soon Strupper and other writers were calling the team Red Elephants because of the color of their jerseys. An elephant mascot still appears at Alabama games.

Arkansas was called the Cardinals till the close of the 1909 season. At a postseason rally celebrating a 7-0 record that year, Coach Hugo Bezdek referred to his team as "a wild band of razorbacks." The name quickly caught on with fans and writers.

Auburn adopted its Tigers nickname from a verse in Oliver Goldsmith's 1770 poem, "The Deserted Village," "where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey"; the poem also notes that "Sweet Auburn" is the loveliest village of the plain

LSU adopted Tigers in 1896 during a 6-0 season, the name being derived from a battalion of Confederate soldiers known as the Louisiana Tigers during the Civil War. The 1955 "4th quarter ball club" inspired the Fighting Tigers nickname now used.

Florida's nickname developed in a roundabout way. In 1907 a merchant from Gainesville, Florida, Phillip Miller, was visiting his son at the University of Virginia when he got the idea of ordering, from a Charlottesville firm, some banners and pennants to sell at home in his drugstore. The Virginia company was happy to fill the order, but inquired what mascot or emblem should be used. Florida had just begun football the year before and had no nickname. Miller's son Austin, the U. Va. student, suggested the alligator because it was native to Florida and not used as a mascot by any other team. Thus, banners and pennants displaying alligators in various poses were made up and sent to Miller's store in Gainesville. The symbol caught on, though the name later was shortened to Gators.

Southern sportswriters in 1936 were asked to supply a nickname for the athletic teams at Mississippi, already called "Ole Miss." The student newspaper sent several suggested names to sportswriters throughout the region and the overwhelming choice was Rebels, suggested by Judge Ben Guider of Vicksburg.

Mississippi State's Bulldog nickname dates back at least to 1905 but has been the official emblem only since 1961, when University officials, with alumni support, confirmed Bulldogs as the official nickname. Between 1935 and 1960 State's teams usually were called Maroons, and before that Bulldogs had been shared with Aggies.

South Carolina football teams at the turn of the century were known as Game Cocks, but the Columbia, S.C., morning newspaper, The State, shortened the name to one word in 1903 and in recent years the name evolved into Fighting Gamecocks. The state had been closely connected with the breeding and training of fighting gamecocks since colonial days.

Tennessee adopted Volunteers from the state nickname, The Volunteer State, which dated to the early 19th century when General Andrew Jackson mustered many volunteers from the state to fight Indians, and later the British in the Battle of New Orleans.

Vanderbilt's nickname, Commodores, was first used in 1897 by William E. Beard, a member of the Nashville Banner editorial staff who had been a quarterback on Vandy's 1892 team. It was a natural because the school had been founded in 1873 by a $1 million grant from Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

LSU's 1893 baseball team wore royal purple and old gold uniforms in a victory over Tulane. That autumn Coach Charles Coates and some of his players purchased purple and gold ribbons to adorn their gray jerseys for LSU's first football game. The school later followed Coates' suggestion to adopt purple and gold as official colors.