Las Vegas Bowl team history: San Diego State’s Aztec Warrior

Leading up to the Las Vegas Bowl between Houston and San Diego State, the Review-Journal will provide glimpses into each school’s football history. We’ll take a look at each school once per day until game day on Dec. 17 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Montezuma (The Aztec Warrior)

Dates: 1941-Present

San Diego State’s mascot the Aztec Warrior, based of the ruler of the Aztec empire, Montezuma II, in the early 1500s, first appeared in a halftime skit during the 1941 football season.

Since its initial appearance though, the mascot has undergone several changes and attracted controversy.

In 1983, Director of Athletics Mary Hill asked that Montezuma, the mascot’s original name, be more “dignified.” That season Montezuma sat on a pyramid on the sidelines, but the practice was stopped after one year.

Student groups began to ask the school to change its Aztec identity in 2000, and in 2002 the mascot went from the spear-throwing “Monty Montezuma” to a calmer “Ambassador Montezuma.” The school eventually went back to “Monty Montezuma” before changing the mascots’ name to Aztec Warrior in 2004.

More student complaints followed in 2014, when the San Diego State Queer People of Color Collective asked to remove all Aztec references and eliminate the school mascot because the name “Aztec Warrior” and its actions perpetuated harmful stereotypes of Native Americans.

Nothing came of the request, however, so expect the Aztec Warrior on the sidelines when San Diego State plays Houston in the Las Vegas Bowl.

Ben Gotz can be reached at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.