# Can't use Cougars as Mascot **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 20, 2012, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124 "2012-01-20T13:27:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/21 "2012-01-20T21:43:45Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > They should have just mentioned not wanting to offend rock and roll singers from Indiana as a reason. That would have made as much sense. They were hoping he’d start up a two-week summer residential program for disadvantaged kids at his canteloupe farm in the district. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/22 "2012-01-20T21:51:26Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > Chargers is bad too. It promotes accumulating debt on credit cards which is an irresponsible thing to promote to high schoolers. > Falcon can be crossed off the list also. It’s too close to the cuss word ‘fu\*kin’. It’s irresponsible to have kids wearing t-shirts that say “we’re falcon awesome” or “I’m falcon crazy”. > Raptors? Nah. Too close to the word rapture. And that’s just blasphemous. And besides, raptors are dinosaurs which go against creationism. > Diamondback? As in “give me that diamond back!” Now we’re promoting divorce, which goes against the sanctity of marriage. Can’t have that in our schools. > Bears? Broncos? Well that’s just plain exploitation of animals. You really don’t want to upset PETA. > Which leaves us with Cavaliers. How irresponsible can you get? Sending the message to high schoolers that it’s okay to have a cavalier attitude about everything. Be careless and arrogant? Is that what we want to tell our kids? Maybe it’s time to revisit Redskins, Indians or Wetbacks. Much less baggage. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/23 "2012-01-20T22:58:52Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I can’t wait until the Cougars play the Trojans. There are still[plenty of tickets](http://www.ebay.com/tickets/USC-Trojans-Basketball-vs-Washington-State-Cougars-Tickets-03-03-12-Los-Angeles-/109682023)! ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/24 "2012-01-20T23:43:52Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I would love to see a high school team called the “Sluts”, with cheerleaders with deliberately bad makeup and no panties. Every single male student would come to (and come at!) every single game. Why would a team be called the [South Lake Union Trolley](http://ridetheslut.com/)? 😃 Yes, it does exist, except, 2 weeks after it opened, some official noticed the acronym and changed it to S.L.U.S (Streetcar). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/25 "2012-01-20T23:51:06Z")
Maybe Washington State should change their name to the Washington State Bitches, Bitches. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/26 "2012-01-21T03:56:58Z")
This never would have been an issue if they had given the kids some kick-ass mascot choices like a badger riding a T-Rex or a unicorn in a sombrero or something. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/27 "2012-01-21T06:27:36Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I can’t wait until the Cougars play the Trojans. Reminds me of the cheer when the Jacksonville St. Gamecocks play the Troy Univ. Trojans: “Your Trojans can’t cover our Cocks!” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/28 "2012-01-21T07:40:48Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > I’m surprised that the reason given is that they don’t want to offend middle-aged women. I would think that a more legitimate reason is that they don’t want a mascot that is a currently popular slang term with a sexual component. That, at least, makes sense to me. And yet they offered Bears as an alternative. I guess nobody clued them in on that. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/29 "2012-01-21T12:41:26Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Reminds me of the cheer when the Jacksonville St. Gamecocks play the Troy Univ. Trojans: “Your Trojans can’t cover our Cocks!” Not to be outdone, the Oregon State cheerleader T-shirts: “You Can’t Lick Our Beavers!” ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/30 "2012-01-21T12:46:34Z")
If it were such a big deal, why not use “Puma” instead? ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/31 "2012-01-21T17:13:58Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > This never would have been an issue if they had given the kids some kick-ass mascot choices like a badger riding a T-Rex or a unicorn in a sombrero or something. Just imagine the cheers for something like that cracks me up. ‘Here we go, Viking-Riding-a-Bear, here we go’ [clap, clap]. ‘Lets go Ninja-Space-Pirates’ [clap, clap, clapclapclap]. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/32 "2012-01-22T00:18:00Z")
My High School team was The Flaming Hearts. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/33 "2012-01-22T19:59:08Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Not to be outdone, the Oregon State cheerleader T-shirts: > > “You Can’t Lick Our Beavers!” And a poem by Robbie Burns from the other team: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/caq63ZHO0Og/hqdefault.jpg "Robert Burns: Cock Up Your Beaver") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caq63ZHO0Og) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/34 "2012-01-24T14:34:35Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > Reminds me of the cheer when the Jacksonville St. Gamecocks play the Troy Univ. Trojans: “Your Trojans can’t cover our Cocks!” When I was in high school, our crosstown rivals were the Trojans. Our favorite slogan was “Trojans burst under pressure!” ---
**Author:** ![Minnie\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Minnie\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Minnie_Luna)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/35 "2012-01-24T15:23:41Z")
Don’t tell [these guys](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte_County_High_School). ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/36 "2012-01-24T16:49:20Z")
The lead paragraph is a tease that promises and doesn’t deliver. It says that the choice of a _mascot_ was rejected. But the story isn’t about a mascot at all–it’s about the _team name_. The hell with that. I want to see an actual Cougar _mascot_–a creature with a big rubber head and even bigger streaked hair, heels and a too-tight miniskirt, vamping around the sidelines. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/37 "2012-01-24T20:44:51Z")
Cougars is really an ideal name for a high school team. It already inspires terror among the jocks of nearby schools, to the point they’d be afraid to show up to the games. Corner Canyon would win most of their games by forfeit. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/38 "2012-01-24T22:16:39Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > “Stay tuned for the Husky-Cougar wrapup.” Reminds me of an actual Seattle Times headline I saw in a National Lampoon “True Facts” book: [“Husky Women Subdue Ducks”](http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900218&slug=1056684) ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/39 "2012-01-25T13:30:39Z")
> [@Brian Johnson at a cricket match in 1976](#): > > The bowler’s Holding, the batsman’s Willey Wikipedia article [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Johnston) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124/40 "2012-01-25T22:38:02Z")
Karate organization, some of the top competitors are given nicknames. One lady, in her 40s, was nicknamed Catherine “the Cougar”\_\_\_\_\_. We had to point out how that comes across to the audience. Could be worse. There’s a middle school in Oklahoma that is the Pansy Kidd middle school. > **[Poteau, Oklahoma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pansy_Kidd_Middle_School)** > > Poteau (/ˈpoʊtoʊ/ POH-toh) is a city in, and county seat of, Le Flore County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 8,520 as of the 2010 census. > In 1719, Bernard de la Harpe led a group of French explorers through this area and gave the river its present name. The present day city was founded in 1885, its name derived from the nearby Poteau River. During the late 1700s, there was a large French outpost at Belle Point (Ft. Smith). From there, they would travel up the Poteau River to a se... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-use-cougars-as-mascot/610124.md?page=1)