AJ Carpinelli PennWest California Archives
In 1933, the students at California State Teachers College (now Penn West California) asked for the school to have a mascot or a symbol for their school. They decided on it being a Hammer and Tongs from the Vulcans Smithy, being the symbol up until 1984 when the football program wanted an actual person to represent them.
You may be asking yourself what is a Vulcan? The Vulcan was a Roman god of Fire, forge, and volcanoes. This god was often associated with people who worked with metal, like a blacksmith. That is why Blaze, our mascot, always has a hammer. This hammer represents how we are a strong school, boosting our confidence to win the football games.
They came up with a cartoony mascot and would use it for when they would write about sports in CalTimes which lasted until 1994. The new logo was introduced around 1996 along with our clocktower logo that is still around campus. First shown in advertisements when we officially got new Cal cards, and in 2003 the Vulcan officially became our new mascot!
In 2009, they unveiled the Vulcan statue during homecoming week in front of Herron Hall, with Blaze holding a Hammer. It was said that if you touched the Vulcan hammer, it would give our football team good luck before a game.
The logo changed again in 2019 to the red, white, and black logo that is on all our hoodies and shirts! When we merged, it was a concern of students if Blaze was going to stay our mascot but that never was even in the picture. This year, our beloved mascot, Blaze will turn 92 years old. Wish him a happy birthday and touch his hammer!