Female mascots?

[TV time]

Are there any school mascots that are clearly female?

It seems to me of all the schools I know of, college and high school, I can only think of one that was truly a female figure. Henryetta High School in Henryetta, OK had as its mascot the hen. They were the Henryetta Hens named after the Disney cartoon character. They changed it in the '70s as I remember because the boys' teams kept being kidded about being the "Hens". The girls' teams, it might be noted, were called the "Lady Hens" (talk about the height of redundency).

And when your citing your examples, let's not count things like "Lady Warriors" or "Lady Buffs". Also I am talking school not team. I believe the women's teams at University of Wyoming are called the "Cowgirls" but the macot for the school is still the "Cowboy".

I might mention there is a school in the Texas Panhandle where the mascot is the "wolf" but the girls teams are wolverines (who knew a wolverine was the distaff side of the wolf family?)

I thought maybe all-girl schools or schools named after women might have female mascots. Any help?

TV

[AskNott]

I thought maybe you meant the fuzzy-suited mascot character, who bounces around during games. Many of those have young women inside. That wolves/wolverines thing stands on its own. Nothing I could say would make it any more absurd.

[Only Mostly Dead]

North Carolina State typically brings both a female and male mascot to games. The male looks like a fop, and the female like and dog version of Minnie Mouse. I can find plenty of pictures of the male mascot, but none of the female in a quick search. On this page I found the following:

Mr. and Mrs. Wuf, North Carolina State University
The call of the wild rings loudly in Raleigh thanks to a howlin' duo named Mr. and Mrs. Wuf. N.C. State adopted the Wolfpack nickname in the 1940s, briefly using a husky as a mascot. The students weren't fooled, though, and the school eventually decided on a wolf costume. When State added women's athletics in the 70s, a female mascot was introduced, and the Wufs were formally married by Wake Forest's Demon Deacon in a gametime ceremony. The two mascots aren't just eye candy--they're an important part of the school's national powerhouse cheerleading team.

. So still not a single female mascot, but an official female mascot in some capacity.

[AskNott]

I just remembered, Purdue Universtity's Purdue Pete® character had a female counterpart for a year or two. She was called Purdue Patty, or some such. It just wasn't a good idea. Purdue Pete has changed a wee bit over the years. He used to wear something that looks like one of those folded-paper printer's hats. Now he wears a hardhat. Some have speculated that Pete's face has been gradually changed to more closely resemble the square-jawed basketball coach, Gene Keady.

The Purdue teams are the Boilermakers and the Lady Boilers. Pete himself is a boilermaker, of course, but I don't think his mug has ever been on the uniforms.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Female sports mascots are known by the technical term "strippers".

Carry on.

[Lamia]

When it comes to women's colleges, some of the most famous ones don't have mascots at all. I think several of the Seven Sisters are mascotless.

Of smaller women's colleges with mascots that I can recall offhand, Sweet Briar has "The Vixens", obviously feminine. Mary Baldwin College has "The Squirrels", which is gender-neutral, but I believe their particular squirrel is meant to be female. Randolph-Macon Woman's College has "The Wildcats", which is also gender-neutral, but the mascot is known as "Wanda the Wildcat".

[rockle]

The official mascot of the University of Delaware is YoUDee, the Fightin' Blue Hen. But I think it's supposed to be a boy.

[YWalker]

Here are some pics of Ms. Wuf of NC State in action.

[Munch]

The mascot for the women's school St. Mary's (South Bend, IN) is the Belles. It's a take on "The Bells of St. Mary's".

[Tangent]

I went to Texas A&M, and the mascot situation there is a little fuzzy.

We are known as the 'Aggies' because the A in A&M stands for Agricultural. Some of our spirit yells still refer to Aggies as "Farmers."

One of the most popular logos or symbols found on A&M merchandise is "Sarge." Sarge is like a cartoon drawing of a military drill instructor (representing A&M's past as a military institution and the continuing presence of the Corp of Cadets as a major institution on campus.) The Sarge logo is all over the place, but, AFAIK, there has never been a Sarge mascot costume. (We've got the real cadets for that).

Finally, the official mascot of Texas A&M is the dog Reveille. Reveille is a Collie, is considered the highest ranking member of the Corp, and is always a female.

So, officially, A&M has a female mascot.

[romansperson]

I went to Bowling Green State University, and they have Freddie and Frieda Falcon:

http://bgsufalcons.collegesports.com...u-falcons.html

Freddie was introduced in 1950, and the female version of the mascot got her start in 1966 as Mrs. Freddie Falcon. Since then she's morphed into Frieda, Freddie's little sister (weird, I know), and the student inside the suit is female (Mrs. Freddie's costume was piloted by a male cheerleader).

At the all-female academy I used to work at, the mascot was a jaguar, so gender neutral there.

[rockle]

Good heavens, I forgot my own college mascot! Syracuse's mascot is a giant fuzzy orange. With legs and a baseball cap. No, really. Look!

[TV time]

Still they are the "Orangemen". And when the women of A&M, Purdue or Bowling Green play, I will be willing to bet that they are the "Lady Aggies", "Lady Falcons" or "Lady Boilers" (now that sounds like a 1950s housewife, "isn't that cute she can boil things"), which to me (on all of those) says the real mascots are not so gender neutral however many skirts one may put on last year's male mascot.

This is sort of sounding like a rant, sorry. I was just looking for female mascots.

Now the "Belles" of St. Marys and "The Blue Hens," they are clearly female mascots.

I was a sportswriter in a community where the high school mascot was the Grizzlies whether the individual competiting was male or female. If I ever called a team or an individual the Lady Grizzlies or a Lady Grizzly in a sports story, headline or cutline, I could expect a call from the elderly superintendent of schools who would point out that Joannie Jensen had as much right to be a Grizzly without a prefix added to it as Steve Jensen did.

[Munch]

Originally Posted by TV time

If I ever called a team or an individual the Lady Grizzlies or a Lady Grizzly in a sports story, headline or cutline, I could expect a call from the elderly superintendent of schools who would point out that Joannie Jensen had as much right to be a Grizzly without a prefix added to it as Steve Jensen did.

The Mishawaka High School mascot is the Cavemen. The women's team is called the Lady Cavemen. How's that for a kick in the nuts?

[Billdo]

They're not a school mascot, but the mascots for the Staten Island Yankees (Single A affiliate of the New York team) are Scooter the Holy Cow and her colleagues Red and Huckleberry.

Perhaps some schools have cow mascots as well.

[Gangster Octopus]

UCLA has a male and female versoin of their mascot:

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/minkoff/031124.html

[TV time]

Originally Posted by Gangster Octopus

UCLA has a male and female versoin of their mascot:

And I notice that the male version has a football jersey on and the female has a cheerleader's uniform on. Why do I think the position will not be reversed during women's volleyball games?

Still, I will say the mascot is the Bruin and when the mascot appears on the cover of the University's PR package it will have one bear and that one will not have a dress on.

[Waenara]

The University of Alberta mascots are the Golden Bears (mens teams) and the Pandas (womens teams). They have their own logos and mascots - the logos can be found on this page (about one-quarter of the way down the page).

[greythound]

Don't forget the University of Florida has Albert and Alberta the Alligator!

[notfrommensa]

Originally Posted by greythound

Don't forget the University of Florida has Albert and Alberta the Alligator!

Whew, I am so glad you reminded me. After nearly 8 years, I had nearly forgotten.

[Ellen Cherry]

In case there's still life in this old girl, I'm moving this thread to the Game Room. The mods there may want to close it, but I'll let them make the call.

[Disheavel]

Wow, I knew that it was unusual, but I didn't think it that rare, but my high school had two different mascots for the boys and girls.
Bucks = Boys
Gazelles = Girls

Granted everything was always "Home of the Bucks & Gazelles", etc. but at least both teams had separate identities and signs etc. My favorite mascot that I encountered as being the pinacle of sexism (rather than just dumb like Lady Cavemen) was Pierre High School Governors and, wait for it... Lady Governors (Lady Govs, for short). That always seemed a fantastic implementation of that glass ceiling.

[Ike Witt]

For the 1988 winter olympics in Calgary, they had 2 mascots Hidy and Howdy, the welcome bears.

[Ethilrist]

Originally Posted by Tangent

I went to Texas A&M, and the mascot situation there is a little fuzzy.

Sounds like most of them are, actually...

And, it looks like Athena is the mascott at Claremont-McKenna, Harvey Mudd and Scripps Colleges (my mother's alma mater).

And the University of Maine at Farmington has The Beaver.

what?

[kunilou]

University of Delaware's Blue Hen.

[cochrane]

The University of Arizona has a male and a female mascot named Wilbur and Wilma Wildcat. They're even "married" to each other.

[Sternvogel]

Originally Posted by Lamia

Randolph-Macon Woman's College has "The Wildcats", which is also gender-neutral, but the mascot is known as "Wanda the Wildcat".

Since this was posted, the school has begun admitting men, and is now known simply as Randolph College. I'm not sure if a male mascot has been added.

[Sternvogel]

Apparently Wanda is still Randolph College's lone mascot. The linked page also contains some info on "Indiana", the Sweet Briar Vixen, and mentions Lynchburg College's Elsie the Hornet. Elsie does not appear to be specifically male or female, and the name derives from "LC", the college's initials.

[zamboniracer]

I wonder if the "Mud Hens" of the Toledo Mud Hens minor league baseball team, are all females, but apparently not: Link

[Max Torque]

Texas Tech's situation is likewise a little fuzzy. Officially, it's the "Texas Tech Red Raiders", and Raider Red is the character on the sidelines. But from 1925 to 1936, the mascot was the "Matadors", and the official name of the band was "The Matador Band". The Goin' Band from Raiderland still wears the matador uniforms today, and there's a strong thread of "Matador" still present at Tech games.

Anyway, one alternate mascot, Tech's oldest in fact, is the Masked Rider, a caped and masked person riding a black horse. The Masked Rider leads the team onto the field before all Tech home games by charging across the turf at full speed, guns up. And almost overwhelmingly in recent years, the Masked Rider has been female.

[Saint Cad]

I don't know if this counts as female but Hickman High School has the Kewpie doll as a mascot.

[Lute Skywatcher]

Not a school but the minor league Rochester Red Wings have Mittsy.

[Intergalactic Gladiator]

Originally Posted by YWalker

Here are some pics of Ms. Wuf of NC State in action.

* Wolf whistle *