You probably thought you saw it all—the strangest of the strange—when Her Campus brought you the 10 Strangest College Mascots. Who thought it could get much weirder than UC-Santa Cruz’s Sammy the Banana Slug or the Fighting Artichoke at Scottsdale Community College? Think again—here are ten more wacky mascots at schools across the country!
1. Student Princes — Heidelberg University
2. Olé the Gaucho – UC Santa Barbara
3. The Poets — Whittier College
4. Rainbow Warriors and Wahine — University of Hawaii Manoa
5. Big Red the Hilltopper – Western Kentucky University
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6. Little Giants – Wabash College
Wabash College, a liberal arts college for men in Indiana, really knows how to scare its opponents. The athletes on the college’s 11 sports teams are known as the Little Giants, although I’m not sure if this has anything to do with the classic movie about peewee football. Additionally, there are 23 intramural sports; Wabash boasts more than three quarters of students involved in intramural sports and 40 percent of students are varsity athletes. I’m not exactly sure what constitutes a “Little Giant,” but I know if I were facing them off in basketball I’d be scared!
7. Eutectic – St. Louis College of Pharmacy
Eutectic, for those of us who aren’t in pharmaceutical school, is the scientific process of combining two solids to form a liquid—a fairly common term in pharmacology. How all the minds of this college came together to represent this process with a furry character, we’re still unsure. The Eutectic has been the official mascot of St. Louis College of Pharmacy since 1993, since it serves as a fitting metaphor for the combination of “athletics and a demanding academic program.” Prior to adapting the Eutectic, St. Louis College of Pharmacy was represented by a dinosaur named Rex (Rx, get it?).
8. The Trolls – Trinity College
There are many stories behind how the Trinity College sports teams got to be the Trolls. One theory is that in 1959, they took a few letters from TRinity COLLege Students to come with a way to honor the students. Another is that the then-president searched the dictionary in 1966 to find a noun beginning with “tr” to sound perfectly alliterate with Trinity. Others include stories of Troll sightings beneath a local bridge. No matter how they name originated, the students are proud to cheer on the Trolls!
9. The Cobbers – Concordia College
Concordia College gives several different explanations for a cobber; in Yiddish, a cobber is a friend. In Australian slang, it’s a buddy. In Britain, it’s someone you take a liking to. But at Concordia, it’s none other than their official mascot. The word had its own meaning in Moorhead, Minnesota, where the school is located. A rival school began using the term to mock the “country boys” from Concordia. Rather than backing away from it, Concordia embraced it and stylized their mascot as a personified corncob.
10. The Anchorman – Rhode Island College
Much to my disappointment, the mascot of Rhode Island College doesn’t sport a red suit and mustache and definitely isn’t Ron Burgundy. RIC’s Anchormen (and Anchorwomen) are actually sailors, which is a way to honor Rhode Island College’s scenic location in Providence.
SOURCES
http://www.heidelberg.edu/
http://ucsbgauchos.cstv.com/
http://www.wcpoets.com/
http://www.whittier.edu/About/
http://hawaiiathletics.com/
https://www.nmnathletics.com/
http://www.wabash.edu/
http://www.stlcop.edu/
http://athletics.trnty.edu/
http://www.cord.edu/Athletics/