In September, the University of Central Florida Knights will play their inaugural game in their new football facility -- the Bright House Networks Stadium.
As we count down to the game, we are taking a look at the history of UCF.
The Knights recently changed their name and their logo. They used to be The Golden Knights.
The university itself went through a name change some years ago. It started life in the 1960s as Florida Technological University.
News 13's Scott Harris sat down with the university's first president recently for a lengthy interview, and one of the stories he heard was the story of that first name.
Charles Millican became the first president of Florida's brand new University in 1965 and he says one of his first jobs was to come up with a name for the school. He assembled a 70-member advisory panel of Central Floridians and took their suggestions to the state Board of Regents.
"I took three names for their consideration, one of them was the University of Central Florida, another one was Florida Central University, and something else that had Central Florida in it. After we discussed it a long time, one of the regents turned to me and said: "Well, Charlie, is that the best you can do?" Millican remembered.
"At that point, Chester Ferguson, the Chairman of the Board of Regents, said: 'Well, Charlie, what about Florida Technological University?' And I said, 'Well, what about it?' And he said, 'What do you think your group would react to that?' And I said, 'Well, Mr. Ferguson, I think they would like it.' He said, 'Well, you take that name back to your advisory committee, and see what they want to do.'" Millican said.
The advisory committee voted 69 to 1 for Florida Technological University. Millican said he didn't know it at the time, but later learned Florida Technological University was the choice of local state Sen. Beth Johnson, a political power at the time.
Millican said it was actually a fortuitous choice. He said that without that name the school likely would not have opened with a full college of engineering, and it would have been much tougher to get the Central Florida Research Park started.
