A pennant, estimated to be 110-115 years old, was donated by a UWO alum who owns a vintage store in New London. January 13, 2026. PC: Fox 11 Online
OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — It’s a school pennant that seems like any other: It’s white and yellow with “OSHKOSH” across the front.
But the history of that pennant, according to University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Archivist Joshua Ranger, is incredibly significant.
“We think it was probably from around 1910 to 1915, right in there. It’s a wool pennant. It’s what they call a stitched letter pennant, so it was probably assembled by hand,” Ranger said. “We don’t have a lot from this era, and there wasn’t a lot of merchandise anyway, so to get anything, it’s important, and to get something as beautiful as that one, it’s significant.”
Notably, the pennant doesn’t say UW-Oshkosh. Rather, it says ONS, which stands for Oshkosh Normal School.
“We started off as a normal school, which is essentially a teacher preparation school,” Ranger explained. “But we weren’t allowed to give out undergraduate degrees. That came later, in 1927, when we became the Oshkosh State Teacher’s College.”
This historic pennant was found in an unlikely spot: at a New London vintage store run by UW-Oshkosh alum Jeff Rickert.
“I didn’t immediately recognize it as UWO. I was just intrigued by the Oshkosh, and I knew it had some age,” Rickert said. “I didn’t know exactly how old. It just looked cool and it was in great shape. I just thought, ‘There’s something here’ and I just did a little research from there.”
The pennant is one of the oldest items — if not the oldest — in UW-Oshkosh’s collection.
Archives of hundreds of city records and UWO memorabilia have been tucked away on the third floor of Polk Library. But come the new planned library renovation, the collection will be front and center.
“It’s going to have lots of display cases built into the wall right on the main, what we call the ‘avenue’ that’s going to go through the building. And it’s going to really have an opportunity to see and learn about the history of the school,” Ranger said.
Until the renovation work begins, the archive will continue to showcase UW-Oshkosh memorabilia like the pennant on the third floor of Polk Library.
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