sentences:  For more than a century, NYU athletes have worn violet and white colors in competition, which is the root of the nickname Violets.In the 1980s, after briefly using a student dressed as a violet for a mascot, the school instead adopted the bobcat as its mascot, from the abbreviation then being used by NYU's Bobst Library computerized catalog.NYU long offered a full athletic program, and was in fact a pioneer in the area of intercollegiate sports.