All over the country in our U.S. institutions of higher learning , a few prefer students routinely pull on cartoonish outfit and parade around in public for the amusement of children , fellow students , alum and raucous fans in a intimate schtick plunge in custom and foolishness .
Because , really , what enjoin next leadership of America better than some super - buzzed Midwesterner decked out as a shock of pale yellow ?
" I take mascot bring world peace , " says Jennifer Smith , who is confessedly a bit slanted in her prospect as " prez " — her terminal figure — of the fledglingNational Mascot Association . " When a mascot shows up , everybody has that mascot in common . you may blab out to the stranger next to you and he may have been a Trump fiend , he may have been a Hillary rabid , but you do n’t really care . A mascot impart you together .
" They ’re zany and … I do n’t know … they ’re peaceniks . They bring us together in a commonness . I just suppose they are seriously crucial in the United States of America . "
As thecollege footballseason ramps up once again , we ’re bombard with ever - familiar question : Can any team beat Alabama ? Who ’s the front - runner for the Heisman Trophy ? flank or dogs at the tailgate ? And , of course : What does Big Al the elephant have to do with the Crimson Tide ?
A Brief History of Mascots
The first bit to know about college mascots is that the connexion between a school ’s nickname and its mascot is n’t always apparent . While Albert and Alberta , who represent the University of Florida , are clearly Gators , and WuShock , the Wichita State mascot is , indeed , a electrical shock of wheat berry ( Wichita State ’s teams are the Shockers ) , it ’s hard to reconcile how a tree diagram occur to be the mascot of the Stanford Cardinal . Or how anelephant(see Now That ’s Interesting , below ) serve as the mascot for the Alabama Crimson Tide .
Mascots have been part of college athletics for well over a century . The Holy Scripture itself harken to the 19th 100 — when people used words like " hearken " — and is translated , roughly , as something that get good luck , a amulet .
Yale wasthe first to take in a mascot , which happened to be of the live creature variety . Handsome Dan the bulldog was introduced in 1889 . His line has carried through to today . Handsome Dan XIX is the current mascot and , plainly , everything a Yale man ( or char ) aim to be . Yale students and visitors customarily greet Dan with a cheer of " Boola , boola . " ( It ’s a Yale thing . )
These day , a costumed Dan , with a real mortal inside , is at many Yale sporting events , too . Similarly , a big - headed , human / bulldog named Hairy Dawg is at the University of Georgia Bulldogs sporting events ( as is a real , alive English bulldog appoint Uga ) . A costumed human Bevo run around for the University of Texas Longhorns ( as does a real bouncy Texas longhorn , Bevo at UT football game secret plan ) .
The list go on and on . And on .
But Why?
mascot are fun . Mascots are necessary . Mascots are to cheer for , even when the squad is n’t .
" Mascots show you what it means to be true racy , " says Smith , who is also the " world-beater of Fuzz " — again , her condition — at a mascot manufacturing firm , AvantGarb , in Indianapolis . " Coaches can forget , players can leave . Presidents of school can pass on . you may fine-tune . But the mascot remains just true bluish to the squad , to the school , to you . To your friends . mascot are kind of like a permanent memory , and you may visit it . you may go back to school and there it is . "
Some university mascot get smallscholarshipsfor their work . Some are paid . Some do it for the honey of the glare . Some do if for the love of schoolhouse . Some do it for complimentary tickets to outside games .
Whatever , mascotting is not something to be taken gently . The University of Florida , for an example , tell mascot can expect to work as many as 15 hours a week between games and other schoolhouse - sanctioned visual aspect . tryout for the mascot of theArizona State University Sun Devils , Sparky , are base at least on part on how many successive thrust - ups a prospect can do . applicant to become the Michigan State Spartans ' mascot , Sparty , need to pen an essay .
prospect to become Brutus Buckeye , a big - manoeuver homo incarnation of a tree diagram crackpot who represents the Ohio State Buckeyes , " MUST SCHEDULE class AROUND PRACTICES , weightiness TRAINING AND GAMES , " according to theBrutus tryout sheet . " [ R]epresenting the character of Brutus is lowly only to your academic chase at The Ohio State University , " it tell .
How important are mascots to their schools ? Often , one mascot is not nearly enough to meet need . SevenBucky Badgerstake part in more than 600 result a twelvemonth for the University of Wisconsin Badgers . The University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish are represented by three differentLeprechauns .
A mascot , more than anything , has to be uncoerced to be friendly and nonthreatening to curious but leery children , not to advert maybe inebriated student and alumni . It ’s part of the privilege of force on an oversized point and slipping into a silly costume to represent a school .
" Kids adore mascot . minor perceive them almost , I think , as toon come to life history : This legerdemain of the filmdom is now walk with you . It ’s an amazing experience , " says Smith , who started in the mascot game in a service department in Berkeley , California , in 1987 . " And while the kids comprehend that , the parent and adults are perceiving the same thing . The legerdemain of our inventive world is walking with us . And you may touch it . It ’s very , very , very , very exciting . "
The Best, the Worst, the Weird
In mascot rope — yes , they subsist — there ’s an ongoingcompetitionover who has the secure mascot . The problem with that is the parameters . A lot depends on your sense of what a mascot should be . Fun ? Fierce - looking ? Clever ? True to liveliness ? One of a kind ?
When it comes to dress up mascots , much depend on the person inside the costume . As far as the costume itself ? " The end is often to make it fierce but make it favorable , " Smith says . " you could do it . It ’s just working with a bunch of fuzz . "
We ’re not about to coronate any mascot bests , worst or weirdest . But here are some to believe :
