Well, not really economics related, but I'd like to share something about the University of Missouri.
Some of the college athletic teams these days have names that are connected to people in their history. The Kansas Jayhawks have their name based on a group of people during the Civil War:
"The Jayhawk is a mythical cross between two common birds -- the noisy blue jay and the quiet sparrow hawk. The word came to prominence just before the Civil War, in Bleeding Kansas, where it was adopted by militant abolitionist groups known as Jayhawkers. With the admission of Kansas as a free state in 1861, Jayhawker became synonymous with the people of Kansas. The Jayhawk appears in several Kansas cheers, most notably, the "Rock Chalk, Jayhawk" chant in unison before and during games."
We also have the Sooners of Oklahoma:
"The University of Oklahoma features 17 varsity sports teams. Both men's and women's teams are called the Sooners, a nickname given to the early participants in the land rushes which initially opened the Oklahoma Indian Territory to non-native settlement."
And then we have some other collegiate teams whose names are based on Indian tribes or chiefs.
Now as for the Missouri Tigers:
"In 1864, while in the midst of the American Civil War, the board of curators suspended operations of the University. It was during this time that the residents of Columbia formed a "home guard" unit that became notoriously known as the "Fighting Tigers of Columbia". This name was given because of the group's steadfast readiness to fight against Confederate bushwhackers, hoping to plunder the city and university, under the command of "Bloody Bill" Anderson. Later, in 1890, an alumnus suggested the University's newly-formed football team be called the "Tigers" out of respect for those who fought to defend Columbia."
But, it turns out that the term bushwacker is more synonimously associated with Missourians fighters during the Civil War:
"The term was widely used during the conflict, though it came to be particularly associated with the guerrillas of Missouri, where such warfare was most intense. Guerrilla warfare also wracked Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and northern Virginia, among other locations. One of the most vicious actions during the Civil War by the bushwhackers was the Lawrence Massacre.
Pro-Union guerrilla fighters in Kansas were called "jayhawkers". They used tactics similar to the bushwhackers. A typical jayhawker action was a cross border raid into Missouri."
So, what I'm trying to point out is that there is definitely a good argument for using "Bushwacker" as the name of Mizzou's athletic teams instead of "Tigers." This is specially the case when we consider the "Border War" rivalry games between the University of Kansas (Jayhawks) and the University of Missouri (Tigers), which are based on a historical period of time shared between the two states during the Civil War:
"The intense rivalry between the two universities can be traced to the open violence involving anti-slavery and pro-slavery elements that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of Missouri throughout the 1850s."
And those involved are no less than jayhawkers from the Kansas side of the border and bushwackers from the Missouri side of the border. So it seems more appropriate to have the Missouri Bushwackers fight the Kansas Jayhawks during these Border War games.
But then again, there is also a strongly negative association with the bushwackers (unless you're a Clint Eastwood fan). They're not really the sort of peple you'd like to get involved with back then ("Bloddy Bill" Anderson and Jesse James are among them). And there's the massacres and such. So I guess "Tigers" was the best decision.
And the fact that I'm starting to like Truman the Tiger doesn't hurt as well.