Saturday, January 12, 2008

Alma Mater

As devoted readers of this blog may recall, I am an alumnus of St. Louis University, receiving both my bachelor's and law degrees there. If, as the billboard says, they have 150,000 graduates, do they count me once or twice?

It's not that the university just has a unique mascot. It has the weirdest mascot of any American institution of higher education, the Billiken. I showed several avatars of the Billiken and discussed its mysterious history in a post last April. Frankly, it was a little embarrassing. What kind of sports teams are represented by a novelty doll from a century ago, made in Independence, Missouri, which may have has its origin as a minor Shinto deity?

Did any of you go to schools with strange mascots? Let us know.

TOMORROW: Would have been appropriate on December 1.

2 comments:

Jack and Joann said...

Delta State University has two mascots. One official that I can't remember. The unofficial one is The Fighting Okra! Now that is a little strange. I guess people in the deep south like okra and worship it.

Rob said...

Although I did not got to the U of Minnesota, their mascot, the Golden Gopher, really does not inspire ferocity in the minds of Big 10 football.