Though Michigan State University is now a large university, in the 19th century it was a small agricultural college known as the State Agricultural College of Michigan. Thus, when the college fielded its first intercollegiate sports teams in the 1880s, the teams were appropriately named the "Aggies". By 1925, the school had expanded beyond agriculture, becoming Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science. To reduce the emphasis on agriculture, the college held a contest to choose a new team name. The chosen entry was the "Michigan Staters." Local sports editors felt the name was too unwieldy for newspaper headlines and searched the contest entries for a better choice. They settled on the "Spartans". The first mascot appeared in 1955 and was a papier-mâché Spartan head. Sparty represents an ancient Spartan warrior, but wears a late Imperial-style Roman legionary's helmet, which was not invented until several centuries after Sparta was subdued by the Roman Republic.