University of Richmond

Name: Wade Eisen Smolla

Homepage: none

School: University of Richmond

Location: Richmond, Virginia

School Colors: Red & Blue

School Mascot: Spiders

Do outsiders “get” your mascot?: Allegedly, during a late 19th century baseball game between Richmond and Virginia, a reporter referred to the Richmond pitcher as “spidery” in his delivery. The name apparently stuck.

School Fight Song: I have no idea.

Traditions: link

Geographical Features: We’ve got a pretty cool little lake right (editor’s note: Westhampton Lake) in the middle of the campus.

Architectural Features: Beautiful brick buildings that smell like northeastern money.

Notable Alumni: link

Anything else we need to know?: U of R undergrad is a nice private school, and often ranked as the top small private university in the South. It’s also very expensive by Virginia standards ($27K per year in 2007). So U of R gets lots of rich, pretty good students from the northeast, but virtually none from Virginia. Because if you can get into U of R, you probably got accepted to William & Mary, too, maybe UVA. And William & Mary & UVA are infinitely superior to U of R, and about a third the cost for an in-state student. So the undergrad kids are rich A-/B+ kids driving down from Jersey in their $50K cars.