They've Got Spirit
An hour before kickoff, Nic Maloukis suits up in the locker room at Texas State University in San Marcos (pop. 34,733). He zips up his furry costume, steps into floppy feet, wiggles into paws with claws and pulls on the head of Boko the Bobcat.
by Marti Attoun
An hour before kickoff, Nic Maloukis suits up in the locker room at Texas State University in San Marcos (pop. 34,733). He zips up his furry costume, steps into floppy feet, wiggles into paws with claws and pulls on the head of Boko the Bobcat.
Faster than you can say “Go Bobcats,” Maloukis transforms into a 6-foot-6-inch feisty mascot who charges onto the football field, leaping and raising his paws victoriously as he leads the home team into the stadium.
Boko bounds among the bleachers, snatching a hat from one fan and hugging another. He scrambles over a railing to join the cheerleaders as they signal the crowd to yell louder. Everywhere Boko the Bobcat goes he leaves a trail of laughter.
“I like being the embodiment of school spirit,” says Maloukis, 22, a graduate student who has energized Bobcat fans for four years.
Since age 7, Maloukis longed to be a team mascot. While serving as a ball boy for the Lady Longhorns at the University of Texas at Austin, Maloukis found his hero—not on the court sinking baskets, but on the sidelines swishing his tail.
“I wanted to be Hook’Em,” he says about the team’s longhorn mascot. “To someone growing up in Austin, the university is such a part of the city. To me, Hook’Em was as big a deal as Mickey Mouse.”
While being Boko is an honor, it’s also physically demanding—and exhausting—to perform in a cumbersome costume that often is 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature.
“You have to keep moving,” says Maloukis, a fit 165-pound guy who skateboards to class and is an avid mountain biker. “A mascot standing there just looks like a big stuffed animal.”
Like most mascots, Boko the Bobcat isn’t allowed to speak—or growl—so emotions are expressed with body language. After a baffling play or referee call, Boko slaps the sides of his shaking head. To laugh, he tips back his head and pats his stomach. If a player is down or injured, he drops reverently to one knee. When he wants to pep up the crowd, Boko launches himself into the stands where he body surfs on a sea of upstretched hands.
“What I love most is seeing the look on little kids’ faces,” Maloukis says. “I feel like a celebrity, but more than that, I feel like a hero.”
Go Criminals, Kicking Mules
and Horned Toads
Adored in hometowns across America, school mascots are a menagerie of furred, feathered and fanciful critters and characters that provide a symbol for college and high school sports teams and their fans to rally ’round.
“Many times the mascot is derived from the school or town name, the school namesake, the dominant industry of the area, or a landmark or feature of the area,” says Marc Sheehan of Federal Way, Wash., who maintains a website devoted to mascots.
While Bears, Bulldogs, Cougars, Eagles, Hawks, Lions, Patriots and Vikings are the most common team names, sports fans also cheer for the Appleknockers, Banana Slugs, Beetdiggers, Claim Jumpers, Cottonpickers, Earwigs, Gila Monsters, Hippos, Hot Dogs, Logrollers, Millionaires, Skipjacks, Sparkplugs, Trolls, Unicorns and Witches.
At Yuma High School in Yuma, Ariz. (pop. 77,515), the crowd cheers on the Criminals, named after the 1870s Yuma Territorial Prison where high school classes were held for three years before the school was built. In 1913, after beating the Phoenix Coyotes in the last few seconds of a football game, a spectator remarked that it “was just criminal the way they stole that game.” A sports reporter overheard the comment and published the description. Soon after, the high school officially selected the “Criminals” as the team name.
In Cairo, Ga. (pop. 9,239), the town’s Roddenbery Syrup Co. inspired the team name one rainy night in 1910 after the company owner ran to his business and grabbed jackets for the players. Printed on the back was “Syrupmaker”—and the name stuck. Each year, a senior at Cairo High School is chosen to be the Syrupmakers’ mascot: the Syrup Pitcher.
Up north in Temperance, Mich. (pop. 7,757), Nick Olszewski, 16, portrays Maximus the Mule at Bedford Senior High School. “Bedford was a big farming place with mules and open fields miles long,” says Olszewski, explaining how the Kicking Mule became the school’s mascot. “Plus, mules are stubborn and hardworking.”
Olszewski was selected to be the spirited mule because “he’s an outgoing kid,” says Bob Titus, who teaches the school’s sports and entertainment marketing classes. “He gives high-fives and passes out goodies and gives hugs to little kids.”
In many small towns, sporting events involve the whole community. To help Ozark High School in Ozark, Ark. (pop. 3,525), the Rev. Ted Darling serves as the school’s revered mascot: the Hillbilly. The Baptist minister wears a beard, overalls and a floppy felt hat, and totes a 12-gauge shotgun. He fires a blank after every touchdown.
“We enjoy the stereotype of the hillbilly,” says Darling, 58. “It gives us kind of a novelty status.”
Fans of all ages embrace the Horned Toads and their mascot, Oscar the Horned Toad, in Coalinga, Calif. (pop. 11,668). The region’s real horned toad lizards have been the stars of the town’s annual Horned Toad Derby on Memorial Day weekend since 1933.
“I remember the first time I did a cartwheel at a football game and almost the entire crowd started clapping,” says Jessica Harrington, 15, who wears the Oscar costume. Among those clapping was Alexa Silva, 4, a devoted fan.
“Alexa invited Oscar to her birthday party. She even wanted to be Oscar for Halloween,” says her mother, Nikki Silva, 27, a graduate of Coalinga High School.
Mascots in training
To add sizzle to their half-time skits and fun to their on-field antics, some mascots attend a workshop taught by Erin Blank, 36, owner of Keystone Mascots in Lancaster, Pa. (pop. 56,348).
Last summer, Blank coached about a dozen mascots—including an overstuffed Toucan, a Robin, Cedar Tree, Baron and Pirate—in practical matters, such as how to stay cool in their costumes, sign autographs in paws and claws, and use props to pep up their acts.
“A car shade can be a surfboard,” Blank says, stepping on a piece of cardboard and teetering with outstretched arms. “I want you to use ordinary objects in ways that they were never intended to be used.”
With music booming, the mascots get cracking with creativity in a room with a mirrored wall so they can see their silliness. Soon, the Toucan is sitting on a red ball as if it’s an egg and checking to see if it hatched, the Baron is using a baton for a Q-tip and the Cedar Tree is wearing a head scarf as a blindfold.
Come football and basketball season, these spirited school ambassadors will parade into stadiums and gymnasiums—some dressed in decades of town history and team tradition—to cavort, cheer and create as much hoopla as possible to support the home team.
Go, Mascots!
Mascots from A to Z
American high schools and colleges have some unique—and unusual—sports team names and icons. Here is a partial list from Marc Sheehan’s mascot website. For a comprehensive list, visit http://www.halcyon.com/marcs/mascot.html.
—Anteaters, University of California, Irvine
—Appleknockers, Cobden (Ill.) High School
—Artichokes, Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College
—Atoms, Annandale (Va.) High School
—Auctioneers, Mullins (S.C.) High School
—Banana Slugs, University of California, Santa Cruz
—Beetdiggers, Jordan High School, Sandy, Utah
—Bellringers, East Hampton (Conn.) High School
—Big Trains, Silver Grove (Ky.) High School
—Billygoats, Pateros (Wash.) High School
—Briar Jumpers, Somerset (Ky.) High School
—Camels, Campbell University, Buies Creek, N.C.
—Cheesemakers, Tillamook (Ore.) High School
—Claim Jumpers, Columbia College, Sonora, Calif.
—Conchs, Key West (Fla.) High School
—Cossacks, Sioux Valley High School, Volga, S.D.
—Cottonpickers, Robstown (Texas) High School
—Crabbers, Crisfield (Md.) High School
—Donkeys, Bray-Doyle High School, Bray, Okla.
—Doughboys, John J. Pershing High School, Detroit
—Dynamiters, Glendale (Calif.) High School
—Earwigs, Dunn High School, Los Olivos, Calif.
—Eels, Clay City (Ind.) High School
—Emeralds, Manistique (Mich.) High School
—Fire Ants, University of South Carolina, Sumter
—Flaming Hearts, Effingham (Ill.) High School
—Friars, Providence (R.I.) College
—Galloping Ghosts, Abington (Pa.) High School
—Gila Monsters, Eastern Arizona College, Thatcher
—Gorillas, Davenport (Wash.) High School
—Grape Pickers, North East (Pa.) High School
—Gremlins, Karns City (Pa.) High School
—Halfbreeds, Aniak (Alaska) High School
—Haymakers, Cozad (Neb.) High School
—Hippos, Hutto (Texas) High School
—Hoboes, Laurel Hill (Fla.) High School
—Hot Dogs, Frankfort (Ind.) High School
—Ichabods, Washburn University, Topeka, Kan.
—Ironheads, Eufaula (Okla.) High School
—Irrigators, Newell (S.D.) High School
—Jackrabbits, Quincy (Wash.) High School
—Jug Rox, Shoals (Ind.) High School
—Kangaroos, Lake Washington High School,
Kirkland, Wash.
—Kavemen, Kuna (Idaho) High School
—Killer Whales, Kingikmiut High School,
Wales, Alaska
—Lawyers, John Marshall High School, Cleveland
—Little Giants, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind.
—Logrollers, Wabeno (Wis.) High School
—Maniacs, Orofino (Idaho) High School
—Martians, Goodrich (Mich.) High School
—Mean Moose, Alamosa (Colo.) High School
—Millionaires, Williamsport (Pa.) High School
—Nimrods, Watersmeet (Mich.) High School
—Orediggers, Colorado School of Mines, Golden
—Orphans, Centralia (Ill.) High School
—Outlaws, Rawlins (Wyo.) High School
—Parrots, Polytechnic High School, Sun Valley, Calif.
—Peglegs, Stuyvesant High School, New York
—Planets, Mars (Pa.) High School
—Plowboys, Roscoe (Texas) High School
—Pretzels, Freeport (Ill.) High School
—Quarriers, Dell Rapids (S.D.) High School
—Quips, Aliquippa (Pa.) High School
—Railroaders, Sparks (Nev.) High School
—Ricebirds, Stuttgart (Ark.) High School
—Ringnecks, Hill City (Kan.) High School
—Russets, Shelley (Idaho) High School
—Shipbuilders, Morse High School, Bath, Maine
—Skipjacks, Chesapeake College, Wye Mills, Md.
—Skyrockets, Wellington (Texas) High School
—Sparkplugs, Speedway (Ind.) High School
—Spongers, Tarpon Springs (Fla.) High School
—Sycamores, Indiana State University, Terre Haute
—Teddies, Roosevelt High School, Minneapolis
—Trolls, Trinity Christian College, Palos Heights, Ill.
—Truckers, Clintonville (Wis.) High School
—Unicorns, New Braunfels (Texas) High School
—Vandals, University of Idaho, Moscow
—Vaqueros, Fernley (Nev.) High School
—Vulcans, University of Hawaii, Hilo
—Wasps, Emory & Henry College, Emory, Va.
—Watchdogs, Beresford (S.D.) High School
—White Buffaloes, Madras (Ore.) High School
—Witches, Salem (Mass.) High School
—Wooden Shoes, Teutopolis (Ill.) High School
—Yachtsmen, Falmouth (Maine) High School
—Yellowhammers, Rotan (Texas) High School
—Zebras, Wayne (Mich.) Memorial High School
—Zizzers, West Plains (Mo.) High School
Marti Attoun is a contributing editor for American Profile
first appeared: 9/9/2007
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9/12/07 8:45 AM
In 1958, a new, as yet unnamed, High School was being built on 182nd avenue in the unincorporated county area between Portland, Oregon (to the west) and Gresham, Oregon to the east.
There is an apocryphal story that several Portland State College (now University) students got together and started a petition drive to name the new High School after the first teacher of a "free" school in Oregon. That school was in Portland, Oregon, the beginning of free education in the state.
As the story goes, they pooled resources and came up with enough money to file the petition with the Secretary of State and then set out to collect enough signatures to have it placed on the next ballot. The petition read something like: "Shall the new High School being built in east county be named after the First teacher of a free school in the State of Oregon?"
They (according to the story) easily collected more than the required number of valid signatures to have the initiative placed on the ballot, to be voted on in the next election.
As related to me by many who repeated the story, shortly (or some said "one day!") before the ballots were to be printed all Hell broke loose in the Secretary of State's Office. The Secretary of State had discovered the teacher's name. His (the teacher's) name was NOT on the initiative petition. So, he (the Secretary of State) invalidated ALL signatures AND the petition.
Purportedly, the teacher's name was John Outhouse. I laughed when I heard it told over and over since I WENT to that High School for four years and graduated from Portland State University some years later, hearing the same story there. I stopped laughing one day when I picked up a book on Oregon history and casually read the that the first teacher of a free education school in Oregon WAS John Outhouse! This can be confirmed by going to the History of Oregon website at:
http://www.oregoned.org/site/pp.asp?c=9dKKKYMDH&b=139662Think about it! "Outhouse High" isn't much worse than "John High". Obviously, their mascot HAD to have been "Sewer Rats"! And their cheer?: Why it would be:
"Diarrhea, DIARRHEA! go, Go , GO!!! "
I was on the Ralley Squad my senior year, and that "Yell" didn't quite pass muster with the administration.
Kent S Clark
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