Feature: Why do we call DePauw men 'Dannies'?

First published in The Bachelor, November 11, 2022.

Of all the jeering and derogatory terms we here at Wabash use for the “school down south,” the word “Dannies” is the one that has always fascinated me the most. Sure, both “Dannies” and the school-that-shall-not-be-named both begin with the letter D; but beyond that, the etymology of the word isn’t immediately obvious.

Wally Wabash and Tyler the Tiger, the mascots for Wabash College and DePauw University respectively, pose with the Monon Bell.

Well, it turns out that I am not the only one who has been lured into the trap of trying to figure out where the term comes from. And, in classic Wabash fashion, it really is a trap, for there appears to be no real record of its origin. Try as archivists and Wabash enthusiasts alike might, nobody as yet has been able to trace Dannies back to its root.

Let’s begin with what we do know. The first recorded use of the term appears in a 1956 issue of The Bachelor. Reporting on a Wabash-DePauw basketball game, John Pence ’58 wrote that “by the end of the first 20 minutes of play, the ‘Dannies’ had maintained their 14-point lead with a halftime advantage of 50-36.”

It didn’t take long for the term to catch on in print. By November 1957, Bill McPherson ’60, also writing for The Bachelor, was bold enough to include “Dannies” in his satirical DePauw fight song:

We are the Dannies,

We have no spine,

But we shall meet that

Old Wabash line.

If they should falter,

That would be fine–

But our backfield are Dannies, too.

What’s more, according to research conducted by Mike Warren ’93, a “Danny” flyer was produced for the 1957 Monon Bell game. However, this artifact appears to have been lost over time, and no known copies remain.

This, sadly, is where the certainties end. Though the remaining evidence would seem to suggest that “Dannies” first arose in the mid-1950s, some alumni believe the term was around before the publication of Pence’s article.

“The origin of the term ‘Dannies’ for DePauw[‘s] male students pre-dates 1956,” William Reinke ’52 said in a letter to former Wabash archivist Beth Swift H’22. “I am quite sure about this statement because during a visit recently with my brother, Judge Robert Reinke ’55, [we] agreed the term was well in vogue at the time of our matriculation at Wabash in the early 1950s.”

But none of this gets at why the name came about. And there is a reason for that: we simply do not have much information. Reinke was not able even to recall a theory:

“Neither of us is quite sure as to why a DePauw guy was referred to as being a ‘Danny,’” said Reinke. “But rest assured, the word was not intended as a compliment.”

One popular theory, put forward by Greg Miller ’83, is that “Danny” is a variation of the word “dandy,” referring to a man who places particular emphasis on his appearance. This would make some sense; it gently prods fun at the perceived lack of traditional masculine traits among DePauw men. But “dandy,” even by the 1950s, was already a rather antiquated word; why, then, would it have emerged in the time it did?

An answer to that question can be found in another theory, one proposed to me a while back by an alumnus whose name I have sadly forgotten (alas, I seem to be perpetuating the longstanding Wabash tradition of oral histories). In World War II, it was common to refer to British and German soldiers as Tommies and Jerries, respectively. It is possible, then, that the word “Dannies” is a post-war variant of those monikers, taking the D in DePauw and making it into a wartime-sounding name. It’s not exactly clear, however, how or why this would have come about.

There are a multitude of other theories, too. James Miller ’80, for example, suggested that the name derives from “O Danny Boy,” the ballad set to the tune of Irish folk song “Londonderry Air.” According to Miller, the ditty “mimics the masculinity of DePauw men.”

Yet another theory contests that the name evolved because of a cigarette advertisement. In the mid-1950s, The Bachelor ran a series of ads featuring “Danny Drew,” a tattooed bodybuilder noted for his strength and appeal to women. Why this would have become associated with DePauw I do not know, but Reinke’s suggestion that “Dannies” has been around since the early 1950s seemingly disproves the idea anyway.

An advertisement for Chesterfield cigarettes from The Bachelor, February 1957.

Why, then, do we call DePauw men “Dannies”? For now, it remains a mystery. If you have any information, or want to submit a theory of your own, The Bachelor would be delighted to help definitively answer what makes a “Danny” a “Danny.”