Until the 1930s, the Kansas State Normal/Kansas State Teachers College (now Emporia State University) didn't have an athletics nickname. In the early 1930s, the athletic teams were then known as the "Yaps". However, many people disliked the name, most notably legendary coach, Vic Trusler. Trusler suggested to a local writer, Cecil Carle of the Emporia Gazette, that the university's athletic teams should be called the "Yellow Jackets" but instead, the name was changed to "Hornets" due to the lack of newspaper space.
