Who of you actually care what your school/alma mater has for a mascot?

[Rabrrrrrr]

I've been thinking about this, what with the constant hoopla over trying to get schools to get rid of their racist (or potentially racist) mascots.

And I'm forever amazed - stupified - totally nonplussed and slackjawed in wonderment - at the totally ridiculous and immature attitude people have about school mascots, and the truly insane number of people who refuse to let a mascot be changed because "That's the high school I graduated from!" or "We've had that for years!" or "That's the tradition!"

I want to call everyone of this ignorant shitbags and ask them, "Why do you fucking care? For one thing, it's not your school any more. For another thing, it doesn't fucking matter. And for the third thing, if your whole identity is caught up in what the mascot was for your fucking high school, you have a SHITLOAD of fucking problems."

My high school has had the same mascot for a couple generations, as has my college -- and you know what, I couldn't give a shit if either of them changed it. Wouldn't bother me at all. It would cause me to pause for one second of my life and say, "Huh, well, what do you know", and that would be it.

My personhood would not be reduced, my sense of self would remain utterly unchanged, and, truthfully, I'd have no emotional component to it all.

And it isn't just the assholes who are against name changes within the realm of changing for racist reasons; it's the assholes who get bent out of shape for changing the name or mascot for any reason (as we see this especially when two schools merge, the gigantic fucking community fight over which mascot "wins", and the goddamn controversy if the school wants to go with a third option). And yes, I understand that the unevolved racist fucks don't want Indian names changed because they "don't wanna be bossed around by politically correct liberals and/or fucking ********* (disparaging word for whatever minority)", but it's a lot more than that. I think it's that too many have their entire psychologically immature concept of self wrapped up in externals.

Jesus Christ, people, WHO CARES?! WHY IS THIS SO FUCKING IMPORTANT TO YOU?! CHANGE THE GODDAMN NAMES!!

Fuck.

[Iniquitous Bunny]

1. No kidding!

:thumbsup:

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Thanks! It's just the silliest fucking thing for people to attach

themselves to their school's fucking mascot.

Who gives a goddamn if it was a jaguar when you were there, became a crepe a few years later, and now they want to make it a tub of margarine and a railroad spike?

IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER.

Let them change the mascot every year. Hell, let's have them fuckin' get rid of the mascot altogether. WHO CARES?!


People whose self-identity is found in their "school spirit" and attachment to a *@(&%#&(*$# mascot are people who should be denied the right to vote or have any voice in the public arena, because they are obviously too fucking stupid to be allowed to share an opinion on anything else.

[Iniquitous Bunny]

4. Can you imagine, for instance,

the person claiming to be a Proud Trojan? :eyes:

[Katherine Brengle]

2. I was never sure how to feel about mine...

I don't think it is right for any school, especially in New England, to use the image of a Native American beside words like "respect" and "honor" but at the same time it is part of the area's heritage...

I don't know...

[Midlodemocrat]

5. My high school mascot name was the Titans

across town, it was the Trojans.

College - Huskies.

I am always shocked and amused by people who have long graduated from said institutions yet place such emphasis on them. Down here in the south, it is incredible. I don't recall this much affection for my alma mater when I was in CT. Unless it was March Madness time.

[Taverner]

6. UCSC Has THE BEST mascot!

Banana Slugs!!!!

Evergreen College gets second best with Geoduck....

[July]

12. I was always amused by my alma mater's Yellowjackets.

Always seemed pretty lame, as mascots go.

[Shine]

18. See my post #17, further downthread.

:)

on edit: I totally AGREE, Taverner! :hi:

[Arugula Latte]

31. SLIME 'EM!

Yep ... Gotta love Santa Cruz ...

[Left Is Write]

7. Let me tell you what happened at my school...

My school was the Burnsville Braves for years upon years. A few years after I graduated, the school board decided a change was in order. The Burnsville Braves became the Burnsville Blaze.

I was attached enough to the original name and mascot that I was glad it wasn't changed until well after I graduated. I did (and still do) think "Blaze" is a ridiculous and stupid name, and I wondered why they couldn't come up with something better. However, that's as far as it went in my mind.

One BHS graduate took the name change seriously. Very seriously. Way too seriously. He graduated in my sister's class, four years after my class. He was so upset with the "Blaze" that he decided to give the school a blaze. A real one. He set fire to the school, causing millions of dollars in damage. I was living and working in Wisconsin at the time, and I was shocked when my mother sent me the local newspaper with full coverage of the arson.

[Taverner]

8. One CA HS that had "braves" as a mascot

Changed it by dropping the 's'. This made everyone happy - as they were now an adjective.

[ronnykmarshall]

9. Ours was the Vikings

and we had major protests from rather large and vocal Viking Community in Bakersfield, CA.

:silly:

[MadHound]

10. Hey, I would be horribly upset if they changed my HS mascot

After all, it is unique in the country. The Hickman High School Kewpies!


Yeah, yeah, I've heard all the jokes, but really now, after going to the school for three years, one becomes attached. And besides, I think all the shit the school takes makes it a better school. One of the tops in academics year in and year out in the state. Also one of the tops in the state in athletics too. Last year they won both the football and baseball titles, and all athletic programs do consistently well every year.

The few, the proud, the Kewpies!:rofl:

[jane_pippin]

11. You would be amazed at people.

When I was in high school we tried revamping our school newspaper to make it, oh--what's the word I'm looking for, interesting! Oh yeah, that's it! While going through the change we took a vote--A VOTE--in the school to find out if people wanted it changed, then for the best new name for the paper and went with whatever it was.

Well. Wouldn't you know it? All these alums who we'd never heard from before--certainly not when the paper was looking for a little extra dough--came out of the woodwork to bitch and moan about changing the name. You'd think we were trying to sacrifice their firstborn to satan or something. So not only did we have to keep the crusty old name that might have made sense in the 70's but had no relevance to us, we had to keep it on a defunct paper because the shit storm that got stirred up was too much for our adviser to deal with, apparently. The adviser stepped down and since nobody else would do it we had no paper at all. But whatever. It's cool. I didn't need the paper to help get me a scholarship to college or anything. Assholes. :eyes:

Anyway, in conclusion, I agree.

[ChoralScholar]

13. Our mascot was

The Atkins Red Devil:



I always thought it was a great mascot. I was always opposed to its change, because rampant fundamentalism was always behind it.

"IT'S SATANIC!!! THOSE KIDS ARE WORSHIPPING SATAN!!!"

Symbols are only what you make of them.

[DS1]

14. Alma-Mater importance is bullshit to me

but then again, I don't give a got-damn about where I've been to school so long as I've graduated.

[Texasgal]

15. We alwasys got laughed at..

We were the Austin High Maroons.... To this day, I still have no idea what a fucking Maroon is...

[Musashi]

26. Kangaroos!

University of Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos! Always liked that name.

[TimeChaser]

16. We were the colts

Just like countless other highschools across the country.

[Shine]

17. LOL! Another inspired rant, Rabrrrrrr!

When I was attending UC Santa Cruz, the official decision was made to take on the lowly BANANA SLUG as our team mascot.

At the time, I was living with a housemate whose claim to fame was that he created the logo of the UCSC Banana Slug. It actually made national news at the time and I had to field phone calls from various news channels, the NY Times...it was unreal.

http://www.ucsc.edu/about/campus_mascot.asp

[Lumily]

19. We were the Satans.

My middle school mascot was the Graham Middle Satans for 25+ years. The high school's mascot was the Red Devils. When you went into the lobby of the school, you saw this great big mural of a baby devil in diapers = Satans.

The middle school stayed the Satans until the mid 90's. Then they changed it to the Stallions because the religious folk got all upset (after 30 years).

I never thought anything of it. We did have a cheer that went, "Here we go, Satan, here we go!" But like I said, I don't think any of us kids at the time gave it a second thought.:evilgrin:

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. Yow! No kidding? I've seen many schools with devils,

perhaps even demons, but never a school that called themselves the Satans.

That's pretty gutsy!

To bad the community didn't tell the religious fucks to go fuck themselves.

[Dervill Crow]

20. I like mine - Jefferson Democrats, and a donkey.

I think it's silly that so many people are getting their knickers in a knot over such things. There are so many bigger things to worry about!

[Thtwudbeme]

21. I disagree with you again! I am pissed off by the Fighting Whites!

;)

EVERY THANG’S GONNA BE ALL WHITE
The Fighting Whites basketball team was organized in early February (2002) by a group of Native American and non-Indian students of the University of Northern Colorado with the intent of playing intramural basketball. We came up with the "Fighting Whites" logo and slogan to have a little satirical fun and to deliver a simple, sincere, message about ethnic stereotyping. Since March 6, when our campus newspaper first reported on the "Fighting Whites", we have been launched into the national spotlight, propelled by a national debate over stereotyping American Indians in sports symbolism.

Read more...

www.fightingwhites.org

[anarch]

33. this really calls for a George Carlin quote

and here it is:

Being Irish, I guess I should resent the Notre Dame nickname, "The Fighting Irish." After all, how long do you think nicknames like "The Bargaining Jews" or "The Murdering Italians" would last? Only the ironic Irish could be so naively honest. I get the feeling that Notre Dame came real close to naming itself "The Fuckin' Drunken, Thick-skulled, Brawling, Short-dicked Irish."

[supernova]

22. I never got into the whole mascot, school spirit thing anyway.

:shrug:

edit: In fact, I'll go so far as to say being made to support the mascot or spirit days at school with clothing or such was where I first learned to detest the whole group think/group identity thing.

[Bossy Monkey]

23. Care? No. But I always thought Penn Quakers was a pretty funny name

for a football team. Baseball, basketball, maybe, but it's kind of tricky to play football as pacifists. Of course, back when I got there, that was pretty much what they were doing, but shortly thereafter, they started winning. Never reverted to the team's real name, the Red and Blue, though. (The latter is almost as silly, of course.)

[TrogL]

24. Teh Spartans

They had pictures of muscular, basically nude athletes all over the gym walls.

I was in heaven.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

27. There was this one guy who wanted to change

the Duke Blue Devils into something more 'benign' and less 'evil' :crazy:

[skygazer]

28. Something I've never understood either

What is the point of the damn mascot anyway? Even when I was in high school, it all seemed very foolish. There's been an uproar of late over my high school's mascot (which was The Colonel and had the image of a southern-looking dude vaguely reminiscent of Colonel Sanders) because "some people" see it as a racist image based on southern slaveowners or some such nonsense.

Of course, the school in question is in Vermont and the mascot as such has nothing to do with the south or slavery but was supposedly based on some mothballed Colonel from the Revolution or something - the only image that could be found was one that had been used for other teams. Or something.

It's all ridiculous as far as I'm concerned and when I was in high school 110 years ago, I thought it very lame that we had this dorky looking dude with a cane as the mascot anyway. I cannot imagine why anyone has any vested interest in either keeping or changing it - it seems like so much time, money and energy to waste on something so incredibly irrelevant.

I think they should change it to "Beagles". That would be adorable. They could have a cute little Beagle bouncing around on the sidelines. Who could possibly be offended by that?

[Rich Hunt]

32. that dog is unbearably cute...

Our college mascot is plastered all over everything...."Willie the Wildcat".

[Arugula Latte]

29. I would extend this line of thinking to caring about if your school beats

another school at some game where some ball gets kicked or thrown around. Who gives a shit? Why does this reflect on you? Does it really matter what a bunch of thyroid cases do with a ball for some designated period of time? Does this really affect your life and your sense of self worth?

:hide: :popcorn:

[Crazy Dave]

30. It's a rw distraction

Get people fighting and focusing on the little, unimportant shit then the next thing you know you have military recruiters and intelligent design showed up your poop-shoot and you're wondering how it got by you.

Damn, someday schools may focus on education again.