Some mascots just make sense, and that is why they are used so often. They are fierce animals like lions or tigers or bears. Some have a local significance that people from other locales might not understand (The Ohio State Buckeyes for example). What are the worst mascots you can think of?
High School- Blue Aces. There is nothing intimidating about playing a team that has a blue playing card on the side of thier helmet.
College- Minnesota Golden Gophers. Why are they golden?
Pro- Columbus Blue Jackets (Hockey). I hate this name, and I love this team. They dress up a yellow jacket (bee called Stinger) in a blue jacket ( supposedly in reference to the civil war), and he runs around the arena. What the hell is this? There are a thousand names that would have been better.
I’ll probably raise some ire with this one, but Stanford. The nickname is a color and the mascot is a tree. Uh, thanks for playing, enjoy the home version and some lovely parting gifts.
In hockey–the Minnesota Wild. Fer God’s sake, can’t you guys just call yourselves the WildCATS and be done with it? You’ve already got a cat on your jersey.
Why are they gophers, for that matter? Ugh. The mosquito would have been just as appropriate and infinitely more menacing. I can just imagine the cheers, “WE’RE THE GOPHERS AND WE’LL UNDERMINE YOUR LAWN! RAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
In other news, the worst school mascot I ever heard tell of was the New Berlin (Illinois) Pretzels. Yes, that is correct. Pretzels. (We always assumed the jr. high kids were the Beers.)
Stanford used to be the Indians but changed it to make the name more politcally correct.
The ones that came out during the hippie days are pretty bad such as the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs and the UC Irvine Anteaters.
My High School was also pretty bad. I went to Venice High School and the school knickname was the Gondoliers. The mascot was Gunther Gondolier. He wore a blue and white striped shirt and carried an oar.
We didn’t have a mascot, but our school logo was the Headless Horseman. I can see how that would’ve been hard to find a costume for if we’d had a real mascot.
My kids went from being Blazers in grade school to being Rockets in high school. I don’t have a problem with the team name, especially since the district was founded in the fifties, but it is a really difficult picture to draw. The thing that bugs me about it is that my daughters keep being referred to as “Lady Rockets” and I really didn’t think the stupid things had gender. But that’s another thread, I think.
Oh, and Osbie, I thought it was Freeport that had the Pretzels. Doesn’t make it any less silly, of course.
And of course, there are always the Boilermakers at a school in our conference. I assume it has to do with the city’s industry, but it seems a little weird for a high school. Not to mention the Joliet Jackhammers, minor league baseball team.
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*Originally posted by Osbie * Why are they gophers, for that matter?
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According to this page, Minnesota was nicknamed the “Gopher State” because of the abundance of gophers in the state. The runner-up entry, “Beaver State”, ended up as Oregon’s sobriquet. This page establishes that the University of Minnesota adopted maroon and gold as its colors more than two decades after “Gopher State” became the nickname. Yet “Golden Gophers” was not applied to athletic teams until the 1930’s.
As a concession (pun assuredly intended) to fans of edible monikers, the Pretzels should play the Frankfort (Indiana) Hot Dogs. Here’s a Frankfort alum’s on-line journal, hotdogblog.
I still think that professional sports teams named after years (SF '49-ers/Phili '76-ers), colors, (Alabama Crimson Tide/Harvard Crimson) other sports (Indiana Pacers), jobs (Packers/Steelers) or car parts (Pistons) were just rather dumb.
Well, U of Missouri (Kansas City) has a kangaroo as their mascot… with the tale here.
And I’m still debating if having a gamecock as a mascot is under the ‘worst’ category or not. (U of South Carolina) It does lend itself to many a bad pun, but the initial impression isn’t exactly favorable.
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The 49ers were people who came out for the gold rush. It’s ironic that the best claims were taken by 1849, and the people who made the most money from the gold rush didn’t mine gold-they sold shovels and blue jeans!
The SF Giants used to have the ‘Crazy Crab’. A guy in a pink-orange crab suit. His hands fit the claws and the rest of the legs just dangled out of control. People used to boo and throw things at him when he came on field.
I went to Brooklyn Technical High School. People who go there are called Technites, so you think the teams would be Called the Tech Knights right? ]WRONG , they are The Engineers :eek:. We don’t even HAVE a mascot. I mean what would it be? A pasty white guy with myopia and a goddamned slide rule? Still that tops my college Mascot “Benny The Beaver” Yes, I am a Beaver, you don’t want to hear what my friend calls the girls basketball team. Seriously you don’t