Born to the Purple

"Born to the Purple" is an episode from the first season of the science-fiction television series Babylon 5. This episode is named after the Greek word porphyrogennetos, referring to special birthright or privileged heritage, royal birth.

Synopsis

Londo Mollari is being forced to negotiate with the Narn. He would rather be pursuing a new love interest, Adira Tyree (Fabiana Udenio), who is actually the slave of an alien named Trakis. He is using her to get a copy of Londo's Purple Files, a stash of "dirt" and information on Centauri's elite that Trakis hopes to sell to the highest bidder, possibly including the Narn. Londo promotes Vir Cotto to diplomatic status and orders him to negotiate with the Narn while he pursues Adira.

Meanwhile Michael Garibaldi has discovered unauthorized use of the Gold Channel communications network, which he attempts to track down. Eventually he traces it to Ivanova, who is using it to talk to her dying father back in the Russian Consortium.

Adira, having drugged Londo and stolen a copy of his Purple Files, is about to meet her master. She starts to have second thoughts about the theft and makes a run for it. Londo and Sinclair track her down, but are waylaid on the way to get her by Trakis' men. Trakis kidnaps her and obtains the copy of the Files.

Northwestern Wildcats

The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern has eight men's and eleven women's Division I sports teams. The mascot is Willie the Wildcat. The athletic director is former Northern Illinois University Athletic Director Jim Phillips, who took office in April 2008.

Origin of the name

Northwestern's athletic teams are nicknamed the Wildcats. Before 1924, they were known as "The Purple" and unofficially as "The Fighting Methodists." The name Wildcats was bestowed upon the university in 1924 by Wallace Abbey, a writer for the Chicago Daily Tribune who wrote that even in a loss to the University of Chicago, "Football players had not come down from Evanston; wildcats would be a name better suited to Coach Glenn Thistletwaite's boys." The team was also referred to in the article as "a Purple wall of wildcats." The name was so popular that university board members made "Wildcats" the official nickname just months later. In 1972, the student body voted to change the official nickname from "Wildcats" to "Purple Haze" but the new name never stuck.