Mascot
For a while after Davenport College's inception into the Yale residential college system, students were known as "Hybrids," a reference to the hybrid style of the college's architecture. While the nickname appeared in a few official publications in the 1970s, it was no longer used by either Davenporters or their rivals. Davenport students were without a title or figure to rally behind.
In 1998, then junior Thomas Shaw, upon returning from a semester of mountaineering, brought back from the California Redwood country a five-and-a-half foot tall, several hundred pound carved wooden gnome as a gift to the college. The gnome, with its green painted shirt and yellow pants, quickly developed a following in the Davenport community, and was soon proudly adopted as the college's official mascot.
The gnome was first placed in the college's courtyard, but after repeated theft by neighbor and unofficial Davenport rival Pierson, the gnome was relocated inside. It was in the entrance of the administrative offices in Crosspiece for the first semester of the 2005–2006 school year, but was moved to the Davenport Dining Hall. In April 2011, Davenport students stopped a group of Piersonites from the most recent attempt at stealing the gnome. The gnome was successfully rescued and taken to its home in the Davenport Dining Hall.
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