Thanks to a quick Wikipedia search, I found an entry about Evansville's mascot, the Purple Ace. Here's what I found.
The story goes back to the 1920s when Evansville was actually the Pioneers, not the Aces. Evansville coach John Harmon told a sports writer that a rival coach had informed him that he had "five aces, not four, up his sleeve." You just know he had been waiting for a right time to say that.
But anyways, the nickname stuck, and Evansville became the Aces. The Aces eventually became Ace Purple, the hilarious picture posted above, a riverboat gambler. The Evansville student body even labeled Ace the "Big Purple Pimp" which could be the best mascot name ever. Eventually, Purple was added to the mascot, and there you go, the Purple Aces!
