LetsGoDU

(Above) Pearl Harbor looked more like Dinkytown after the Gopher Hockey Riots 55 years ago today

Happy "Pioneer" Day

At dawn on Sunday, December 7, 1941, naval aviation forces of the Empire of Japan attacked the United States Pacific Fleet center at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and other military targets. The goal of this attack was to sufficiently cripple the US Fleet so that Japan could then attack and capture the Phillipines and Indo-China and so secure access to the raw materials needed to maintain its position as a global military and economic power.

What many don't know is the the Pioneer nickname was adopted by the University of Denver during these trying times. It was hoped that the university might remain open if the Japanesse invaded Colorado. The chancellor at the time, fearful that Denver would be over-run by the Japanese, changed the school nickname to the "Pioneers" after the speaker company in Japan.

Nozomu Matsumoto of Tokyo had founded a company named Pioneer. His passion for music that he hoped to share with the world through high quality audio speakers. That passion began with a small operation to repair and manufacture speakers to a worldwide company today.

The chancellor believed that Japanese might keep the University of Denver open as engineering college if the school was named after a Japanese company. Luckily the US won the war, but the Pioneer monkier has remained to this day.