By Cody Straub –
There are so many great things about college athletics…the competitiveness, the passion, the school pride, but one thing I’m not too sure about is the school mascots.
I know it brings out the school pride and gives the students something to rally around, but is it really necessary to pay some college kid money to dress up in a ridiculous costume for every sports event and do things they would never do if they didn’t have the costume on to cover their face?
Don’t get me wrong I’m all for the different school names, I think it really gives the students a sense of pride. Plus being able to say “I’m a Tiger, or Gator, or Panther” or whatever, is something people hold onto their whole lives. But schools are getting so desperate that they have to have an Orangeman, like Syracuse, or a Blue Hen at Delaware as a mascot.
Don’t even get me started with pro mascots. Really, who even knows about those mascots? The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the Phillie Phanatic. I think the marketing groups of the teams think that having some guy in a ridiculous suit running around the stadium will boost sales. Not so, it’s just embarrassing and it scares little kids.
Here’s a look at the five most ridiculous, un-intimidating mascots from major college sports:
5) Maryland Terrapin: A Turtle really? “Yea we are going to beat you guys on the field, just wait a second to let us catch up, we’re a little slow.” A turtle is really making their opponents feel intimidated.
4) Alabama Crimson Tide: Their mascot is an elephant! What does that have to do with anything? Pretty sure their are no elephants down south in Alabama. I also don’t understand how a elephant fits into their name Crimson Tide.
3) Syracuse Orange: If a little Orange Man was running around my home court I would be a embarrassed. This falls under both the ridiculous, and not intimidating category. The picture really speaks for itself.
2) TCU Horned Frog: A frog, what an intimidating mascot. With it’s big googly eyes, and little horns it’s more ridiculous than intimidating. It’s too bad their stifling defense is represented by a frog.
1) Stanford Cardinal Tree: A tree? That’s the best they could come up with? I expected more from one of the most prestigious academic schools in the nation. Come on, Andrew Luck didn’t come to school to have a tree as his cheering section.
There was this big push a few years ago to make school mascots look meaner. Old traditional mascots suddenly had to have fangs and/or claws and a sadistic sneer. What a sign of the times! Everthing has to be “hard core” now. You see it in everything. The music is just a bunch of threat displays. Everything has to be mean-spirited and cynical. Life’s too short for that.
I like oranges…