Tulane is called the Green Wave because a popular 1920 student song and newspaper usage turned “Green Wave” into the university’s athletic nickname, replacing earlier color-based names.
Early nicknames
From the 1890s through 1919, Tulane’s teams were commonly known as “The Olive and Blue,” drawn directly from the school’s colors. Around 1919, a student publication began informally calling the teams the “Greenbacks,” which led to related nicknames like “Greenies.”
Birth of “Green Wave”
In 1920, a song titled “The Rolling Green Wave” was written and published in a Tulane student newspaper, using the image of a powerful green wave as a rallying idea for the teams. Shortly after, the paper used “Green Wave” in a game story, and by the end of the 1920 season the term had caught on as the primary nickname for Tulane athletics.
Meaning of the wave image
The “wave” imagery reflects both the school’s green colors and a sense of momentum and force, like a wave rolling over an opponent. Some accounts also connect the nickname loosely to Tulane’s location near the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain, and the Gulf of Mexico, though this geographic link is more interpretive than official.
