What's the deal with the name Corinthian University?

Our legal name

Our incorporated name in Illinois is Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club Junior Fleet, Inc. since 2002.  Our DBA Corinthian University is on file. We also have a licensing agreement to use the federally trademarked name and logo, Corinthian University.

Why Corinthian?

The simple answer is because we were chartered by members of Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club looking to enhance the "Junior Fleet" of the club to make it easier to teach member's children to sail in dinghies. This answer leads us to the real question, why did Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club choose that name. 

There is no evidence it was founded by a group of yachting enthusiasts from Corinth, Greece, nor by a religious group of yachting enthusiasts. Instead the name was picked because of an ideal and a movement which began in England during the Victorian Era during the rise of modern sporting events and the creation of the Olympics. The movement has faded in many ways; however, the term Corinthian still remains a popular term used in yachting to mean a person, group, or competitor, who ascribes to a set of beliefs about the conduct of an athlete in sport which promote the purity of amateurism and fair play. It has come to be recognized in many events as a separate scoring subclass at a regatta. A Corinthian competitor certifies that they sail without a professional sailor on board, or that no one on a team is paid to sail.

Why University?

Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club Junior Fleet, Inc.; it's six words long and it does not roll of the tongue. The abbreviation CCYCJF is even worst. People still just call us "Junior Fleet" years after incorporation. Many did not even realize that we were a separate entity from the club. You could say the organization was like a child needing to grow up because of its name.

When two major educational programs of Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club developed for adults, Adult Sailing and Crew School, joined us and became programs of "Junior Fleet" to enable their own growth, the name "Junior Fleet" had been outgrown. We know the term university is normally associated with higher education but it also signifies a union of multiple undergraduate colleges and graduate schools under one banner. We felt it was an appropriate usage to describe the new union of formerly independent schools into one organization providing education for both youth and adult students. We think a popular quote from the famous Chicago architect and urban, Daniel Burnham, who is credited for the design of the Chicago lakefront also helps to explain our choice...

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency”