The University of Richmond started out as a boys-only school that was founded by Baptists in 1830. When athletics became part of campus life many years later, the university mascot was the Colt. The Richmond Colts would participate in several men's sports from 1876 until 1893. The name Colts was meant to describe a team that played like an energetic group of young colts.
In the summer of 1894, the University of Richmond baseball team was in the midst of their season. Richmond pitcher Puss Ellyson was a tall, lanky hurler whose arms and legs flailed wildly during his wind-up and delivery. Local sportswriter Ragland Chesterman of the Richmond Times-Dispatch was assigned to the baseball beat, and he first used the term "spider" to describe the way Ellyson's arms and legs moved around and confused batters. He also used the term "spiders" to describe the members of the entire team later in the story. The school would go on to adopt the spider as its official mascot.
The events that led to the change of the school mascot made the University of Richmond one of the most unique mascot-represented colleges in America. There were no other schools in the nation that used the spider as their team mascot at the time. In fact, there are still no other "Spiders" playing college sports in America in 2011.
Baseball, basketball, football, golf, soccer, tennis, track and field, field hockey, lacrosse, swimming, diving and tennis are all played at the University of Richmond, and all of these teams carry the "Spider" name. In 2008, the Richmond football team won the first NCAA title for any athletic team in the school's history; the Spiders beat Montana 24-7 to win the NCAA's Division One FCS championship.