I'll jump ahead in the alphabet and mention the nickname of my alma mater: the Tufts University Jumbos. So named because of one of the school's early benefactors: the one and only P.T. Barnum himself (there is also a Barnum Hall on campus). The stuffed carcass of the majestic pachyderm himself (herself?) graced the Quad until a fire nearly destroyed him. The tip of the trunk and tail remain in an old peanut butter jar in the Athletic Director's office, and a concrete elephant now stands watch over the studentry.

According to past issues of The Sporting News and Sports Illustrated, Tufts
University has one of the most unique college nicknames in the country. In a 1992
poll taken by the National Directory of College Athletics, "Jumbos" placed 18th,
wedged between the Gorillas of Pittsburgh State and the Nanooks of
Alaska-Anchorage, but far behind the first-place Banana Slugs of California-Santa
Cruz.

...

In 1949, Jumbos place at Tufts was threatened by the University of Bridgeport,
who also wanted to claim the enormous pachyderm for its own mascot because
Bridgeport had been home to Barnum and his circus. This challenge was based on
the grounds that Barnum owned only half of Jumbo (with Bailey owning the other
half), and he could only bequeath his half of the elephant to Tufts.

President Leonard Carmichael answered Bridgeport's request by gracefully stating
that since Tufts had been good stewards of Jumbo, the college had the right to
choose which half of the elephant it wanted and naturally decided upon the front.
Bridgeport declined to take Jumbo's rump, but as a gesture of goodwill Tufts gave
the albino elephant that stood beside Jumbo to the Connecticut school.

And though Sparteye's team has won a national title, note that
The Tufts football team was one of the sport's first. Some historians point to a
game between Harvard and Tufts at Jarvis Field in Cambridge on June 4, 1875 as
the first game of American football between two American colleges.