Amherst Mammoths women's ice hockey

The Amherst Mammoths (formerly known as the Amherst Lord Jeffs) are a Women's Division III team in New England Small College Athletic Conference representing Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The team is based out of the Orr Rink located on the college's campus.

The school's former unusual nickname was a reference to the person for which the town of Amherst, Massachusetts is named, Lord Jeffery Amherst who was a commander of British forces during the French and Indian War (or known as the Seven Years War to most Europeans).

Changing of Nickname
At a November 2015 faculty meeting, the faculty voted to have the school remove the nickname amid student protest of the nickname. The action by the faculty was non-binding, however, the trustees of the college are expected to take the recommendation under advisement at their January meeting.

The main source of the controversy is that Lord Amherst was a proponent of giving blankets that were infected with the smallpox virus to Native Americans.

The trustees voted to get rid of the Lord Jeffs nickname as it has became something that has brought members of the campus community apart as opposed to what a mascot is supposed to do, bring all of the members together. Some proponents for change have also asked for the trustees to look at changing the name of the school as well as just changing the nickname will not change the fact that the school is indirectly named after Lord Amherst, as it is named after the town that is named after him.

In May 2014, a wild moose found its way on to campus ending up in the back yard of the college president's house. A facebook campaign was started to change the nickname to Moose and gained over 900 likes in less than two weeks.

The renaming process began on October 24, 2016 which had received 2,046 suggestions and 9,295 votes. A decision was announced on the renaming of the athletic teams to Mammoths was made on April 3, 2017. The Mammoths are the schools first official mascot as the Lord Jeffs name was never official.

Conferences

 * ECAC East (1995-2001)
 * New England Small College Athletic Conference (2001-present)

Arenas

 * Orr Rink (1995-present)

Head Coaches

 * Unknown Coach (1995-1996) 7-14-0
 * Russell Kidd (1996-1997) 5-15-1
 * Kay Cowperthwait (1997-2003) 42-88-7
 * Jim Plumer (2003-2012) 158-69-19
 * Jeff Matthews (2012-Present) 125-58-29 (as of end of 2019-20 season)

Links

 * NESCAC Women's ice hockey website
 * Amherst Mammoths women's hockey website