"Captain" is the official name of UT Martin's costumed Skyhawk mascot. The name, "Captain", was selected because it's a gender-neutral name that fits the concept of a mythical hawk that flies a plane. UT Martin's official mascot became the Skyhawks in 1995 when a group of wise thinkers captured UT Martin's history in a three-fold manner:

1. The first educational institution on the site of UT Martin was Hall-Moody Bible Institute. The school's athletic teams were called "sky pilots", a frontier term for preachers in that day, but perhaps the students were thinking of the glamorous flying aces of World War I.

2. 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 located on the current site of Westview High School.

3. Red-tail hawks are indigenous to the west Tennessee region.