Concordia College is a nice, well respected Lutheran college in Moorhead, MN. Freshmen traditionally wear little yellow beanies with a maroon C on the front until the football team wins their first game of the season. The unusual thing about the school is it's sports mascot, they are the Cobbers.
Below is Cobber information from the colleges sports website; (
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So what’s a Cobber?
In the Yiddish dialect of Hebrew, a cobber is a friend, comrade or good companion. In old Australian slang, a cobber is a good buddy, a pal (‘ga day, cobber!) And in Britain a cobber is someone to take a liking to.
In Moorhead, the origin of the term was more likely intended as a term of ridicule, dating back to the founding of the college in 1891.
Another Moorhead college, Hope Academy, founded by Swedish immigrants, was Concordia’s first rival. While their school was located in the city proper, Concordia was “out in the country,” surrounded by farmland. So the urbanite Hope students derisively called the predominately Norwegian farm boys from Concordia “corncobs.”
Before Hope Academy closed in 1896 due to lack of funds, some of its students seemed to look with envy upon the success that Concordia enjoyed from its start.
After the boys' dormitory had been erected at Concordia, literary entertainments were held in the basement that then was called the Commercial Hall. These programs were well attended by people from both Fargo and Moorhead. As Hope, in Moorhead city proper, failed to duplicate this patronage by the public, a feeling of jealousy developed.
For this reason some of the boys from downtown came to disturb the programs at Concordia. To them must go the credit of composing the following lines that they took great delight in yelling, loud and repeatedly:
"Corncobs! Corncobs!
Hva' ska' Ni Ha?
Lutefisk and lefse --
Yah! Yah! Yah!"
The corncobs nickname stuck around for some 30 years until the name Cobbers gradually evolved. With time, what originated as a slur was embraced so today the Cobber nickname is one students, athletes and alumni carry proudly.