Traditions

The spires of the Godsey Administration Building on the Macon campus have been the most significant symbol of the University since Mercer moved from Penfield to Macon in 1871. The tower in the tallest of these spires is mentioned in The Whisper of the River by Mercer graduate Dr. Ferrol Sams. The novel is a largely biographical account of the author’s years as a Mercer student in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

For almost 100 years, students have been climbing that same tower and leaving their signatures. Most sign their names as freshmen, while others climb the tower later in their college career or as alumni. Signatures can be found on the walls, doorframes, floors, ceilings, banisters and pillars on the way up to the tower and inside the tower itself. Sams' autograph is located on the Kappa Alpha Order wall.

Prior to 1924, Mercer’s nickname was the Baptists. The mascot officially became the Bears after a vote by the student body, although the University’s athletic teams drew that label decades earlier. According to the late Steadman Vincent Sanford, a Mercer graduate and former chancellor of the University of Georgia, the Bears reference originated in the first football game played between Mercer and Georgia in 1892. In those days, athletes wore long hair and sported handlebar mustaches. As a brawny Mercer lineman charged down Old Herty Field in Athens, where that game was played, a bemused spectator asked, “Whence cometh that bear?” The name stuck. In a 1949 contest sponsored by The Cluster, Mercer’s campus newspaper, students voted to name the bear mascot Toby. Students assigned the name Tot to the female bear mascot. Mercer’s school colors are orange and black.