Wacky Mascots
Although many teams would opt for a fierce animal as a mascot, University of California Santa Cruz has a certain loyalty to banana slugs. Sammy the Slug is a yellow slug famous for beating out Santa Cruz’s original mascot option, the sea lion. In the eyes of the students, the slug represents a creature with no predators who is fun and fearless. Sammy can be spotted walking around campus with fans constantly swarming him.
Philly Phanatic was created by Dennis Lehman, the Philadelphia Phillie’s former Director of Marketing, to encourage families to come to Phillies’ baseball games. Famous for being extremely interactive with the audience, Philly Phanatic often walks around and teases the crowd, while also entertaining them by riding an ATV. He is easily spotted as a feathery green character wearing a white Phillies uniform.
Of all the college mascots, the Stanford Tree has a somewhat unique quality in the sense that it changes every year. Although typically a redwood, the responsibility of making the costume falls upon the student who plans on wearing it, which leaves room for creativity. This also means that the tree’s mannerisms and personality traits differ from year to year, which is exciting and refreshing for the extremely loyal fans.
The Syracuse University mascot, Otto the Orange, is far from fierce but quite unique and entertaining. This mascot was named by the school’s cheerleaders. Resembling a small tangerine with a little blue hat, this mascot can easily be described as cute and friendly, but he does a good job of representing the team’s enthusiasm and positive energy, whether he is dancing or simply skipping around. •
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