Homecoming 2024 has arrived on the Concordia University, Nebraska campus. The festivities will pick up later in the week with the Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame banquet on Friday and then with a quadruple-header of home athletic events on Saturday. The homecoming banquet and alumni awards will also take place on Saturday. The complete homecoming schedule is linked below.
Homecoming links
· 2024 Concordia Athletics Hall of Fame
Saturday, Sept. 28 home athletics events
· 1 p.m. – Football vs. Dordt
· 4 p.m. – Volleyball vs. Northwestern
· 5:30 p.m. – Women’s Soccer vs. Briar Cliff
· 8 p.m. – Men’s Soccer vs. Briar Cliff
As part of homecoming week, we are taking a look at the traditions that make Concordia Athletics unique. Some of those traditions include the Bulldog nickname, the ringing of the victory bell and the singing of The Doxology in the postgame football locker room. In feature pieces of the recent past, we took a deep dive into the origins of these traditions.
Sports of the Past
NOTE: The excerpt below was taken from the 1934 Concordia Teachers College Broadcaster feature, “The Story of Concordia.”
Where can we look for information on the history of sports at Concordia? There positively is no written record of sports at Concordia during the early years. Therefore, the news contained in this article will largely consist of reminiscences of some who have had a personal contact with the college during the greater time of its early existence.
In the history of sports we find that the name of our former President Weller must of necessity be mentioned since he was a person that could find interest and value in sports and no doubt realized that the combination, clean sports and study, would make a fine and spirited teacher.
Some of the sports that the first Concordians took part in were baseball, skating and tennis. Football was added soon after and it is interesting to know that John Weller, a son of the first president of our college and also an early graduate of our institution, continuing his studies at Nebraska University, became an “all American” player there, which can be said of Bob Weller, a later graduate, also. Football played at C.T.C. was for many years an intermural sport. A game was usually played with a town team every Thanksgiving Day. The inter-class games in the earlier years held much interest.
The game baseball dates back to the beginning of our college, and since the school term included June in the first years, baseball proved to be the most important sport and many strong teams were developed. One of the first baseball games was played with Germantown, now known as Garland.
Basketball at first was played outside and like football, was at first an intermural sport. In 1919 it was played in the Y.M.C.A. building. Concordia basketball quintets have been built up in this rented building from 1919 until our own gymnasium was built and dedicated in 1931.
Golf and track were added as competitive sports when the Nebraska Junior College Conference was formed six years ago (1928).
What’s in the nickname?
For the first 40 years of Concordia Nebraska’s existence as an institution, it went without an official athletic mascot or nickname. That changed in 1934 when the university conducted a vote of significance that would form a piece of its DNA and its brand for decades to come.
Four nickname options were offered to the voters:
- Bears-Cubs
- Hurricane
- Whippets
- Bulldogs
Not a lot of information exists within university archives that specifically details the voting process that was used or why the aforementioned choices were put forward. Stated a brief from the December 1934 issue of Concordia’s Broadcaster publication, “Although the alumni did not take an active part in helping us select the right name for our athletic teams, I’m sure they are interested in the outcome. The name ‘Bulldogs’ received the majority of the votes cast. Out of the other three names, the name ‘Bears-Cubs’ alone received appreciable support.”
That same 138-word piece went on to mention that the bulldog mascot, dressed in the school colors of “blue and white,” made its first-ever appearance at a sporting event on November 9, 1934, when the Concordia football team defeated Central City, 20-0. The bulldog’s second appearance came not long after at a men’s basketball game versus Dana. According to the Broadcaster, the bulldog sat in the bleachers near the coach.
For further reading on the Bulldog nickname, click HERE.
The Victory Bell: a uniquely Concordia tradition
Hanging from the archway of a still brand new colonnade, the more-than-100-years-old Victory Bell has become a fixture inside Bulldog Stadium. Its unmistakable reverberating clangs come alive often on crisp fall Saturdays. It’s part of a well-established tradition that’s uniquely Concordia University, Nebraska. Said 1952 graduate John “Sid” Seevers, “You would hear that and you knew we had a victory.”
For many years now, this majestic bell has signaled victory for the Bulldogs. But why? And do any of today’s Concordia athletes who do the honors of ringing it really know the history? That’s incredibly unlikely, because many of the details of the bell’s whereabouts over its long lifespan have been scattered amongst the minds of many who may have encountered the beastly bronze artwork that has stood the test of time. Those people have come and gone. Many people know something about the bell, but no one seems to know the entire story. We may never reconstruct its complete journey.
The truth is that The Victory Bell has sometimes been cast aside, left behind in storage or simply laid to rest next to the structure that is currently known as the hitting center, situated on the southeast part of campus. Rarely, if at all, is the bell mentioned in historical narratives or yearbooks that chronicle Concordia’s past.
As folklore has it, The Victory Bell first resided on the roof of Jesse Hall. A dormitory that housed male students for nearly 50 years, Jesse Hall was erected in 1923. According to accounts from the time, a bell sat atop Jesse’s roof as early as 1945. An article from the April 30, 1997, edition of the Seward County Independent stated that the “victory bell originally hung from Jesse Hall, where it was sounded each morning to awaken the campus community and call students to meals.” From its perch, the bell could be heard, but not seen by onlookers from ground level. This particular bell had seemingly never been intentioned to have anything to do with athletics or to have any type of visible presence at the “College in the Cornfields.”
For further reading on the Concordia Victory Bell, click HERE.
Concordia Football and The Doxology
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Those four lines of text carry a lot of weight. Singing The Doxology in the postgame locker room is about as Concordia as ringing the bell after victories or getting engaged the summer before your senior year. Any visitors who have snuck into the locker room following a Bulldog football game will bear witness to this tradition, one that has endured since at least the 1970s.
The Doxology was written in 1674 by Thomas Ken, an English cleric who became known for his ability as a hymn writer. Ken included the four lines of text shown at the top as the final verse of two hymns, “Awake, my soul, and with the sun” and “Glory to thee, my God, this night.” The lyrics written by Ken have become something of an anthem as a way to praise God for His many blessings. The Doxology is widely used in public worship, but not necessarily in football locker rooms. That’s where Concordia’s unique environment comes into play.
According to past head football coaches John “Sid” Seevers (tenure lasted from 1970-76), Larry Oetting (1977-89) and Courtney Meyer (1990-2008), The Doxology really took hold within the program during the 1970s. As best as memories can place it, The Doxology really became a consistent staple of the postgame routine during Oetting’s head coaching tenure. It certainly could have been sung on occasion prior to that time.
Upon his promotion to the head coaching role leading up to the 2017 season, Daberkow re-emphasized the singing of The Doxology. Says Daberkow, “This is part of who we are in this program. The postgame Doxology has been part of some of my highest highs and lowest lows in this profession from an emotional standpoint. It definitely forces you to get a handle on reality and forces you to be grateful. Praising God after a win or loss is an overflow from the heart.”
For further reading on the singing of The Doxology by Concordia Football, click HERE.