UT Martin's official mascot became the Skyhawks in 1995. The school lists three references regarding the name, such as the fact that when the school's first site was a Bible institute, the school's athletic teams were called "sky pilots", a frontier term for preachers. During World War II, UT Junior College contracted with the Naval War Training Service to help train pilots, who completed their flight training at an airport now near a high school. Also, Red-tail hawks are indigenous to the west Tennessee region. The previous names of the athletic team were the Junior Volunteers and the Pacers.