Forget trojans, lions, or bulldogs. Nothing’s more intimidating than a mascot capable of giving you food poisoning.
1. FIGHTING PICKLE
When the University of North carolina School of the Arts needed a name for its 1972 intramural team, they honored pickles. The school still lacks an athletic program. Or as Chancellor JohnMauceri said in 2012, "The fighting pickles are peerless and remain undefeated."
2. FIGHTING OKRA
Delta State University’s official team name is the “Statesmen,” but when students realized that a politician didn’t stir fear in opponents, they chose vegetable meanus, “a large, prickly, bipedal vegetable with an inherently bad temperament.”
3. KERNEL COBB
One of my favorite mascots- Kernel Cobb at Concordia College. Fear The Ear! pic.twitter.com/6vkuVRDnOq
— PhantomAcct (@phantomacct) October 20, 2013
Before calling themselves the “Cobbers,” students at Concordia College couldn’t decide on a name, trying “The Lutherans,” “Vikings,” and even the “Lutefiskers.” But when an opposing school jokingly called the rural students “corncobs,” Concordia took ownership of the insult.
4. PURPLE COW
(Image credit: Eph Sports)
Named for founder Colonel Ephraim Williams, the athletic squads at Williams College are called the “Ephs.” Since nobody knew what an Eph was, students voted in 1907 on a mascot, choosing the Purple Cow. (The school’s marching band is called the Moocho Macho Moocow Military Marching Band.)
5. WUSHOCK
Wichita State's WuShock. #huh pic.twitter.com/N9RnDIv17c
— KRenner (@KRenner2) March 26, 2015
When football players at Wichita State University needed a name for their 1904 team, they chose “Wheatshockers” because players spent the summer working the fields. The physical mascot is a “big, bad, musclebound bundle of wheat.”
6. ARTIE THE ARTICHOKE
In the early 1970s, Scottsdale Community College administrators were accused of bribing athletes to attend the school using scholarship money intended to help Native American students. Outraged students protested by voting to change the school’s mascot to something ludicrous.
7. OAKIE THE ACORN
Going nuts on the Quad during a College Hour Dance Party @sunyesf #AcornNation #nifkin #Mascot pic.twitter.com/pIiQgnq9GL
— Oakie Acorn (@ESFOakie) October 7, 2015
To nobody’s surprise, the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s first athletic program was in intercollegiate ... timbersports (like log cutting!). They’re called the Mighty Oaks.
8. SPEEDY THE GEODUCK
(Image credit: Flickr user EvergreenMES)
In the 1970s, faculty at Evergreen State College wanted a silly mascot that embodied the school's principles: nonviolent, flexible, long-lived, willing to dig deep. Their fight song?
Go, Geoducks, go.
Through the mud and the sand
Let's go.
Siphon high, squirt it out.
Swivel all about,
Let it all hang out.
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The article above appeared in the Scatterbrain section of the September 2015 issue of mental_floss magazine. It is reprinted here with permission.
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