The Sewanee Mascot: Time for a Change at the University of the South?

A University as distinct and unique as the University of the South deserves to be represented by a mascot of equal distinction and exceptionality. However, when one enters the Fowler Center by way of the Juhan gymnasium they may wonder if they are in fact at Sewanee or just passing through the gym of Trinity, Colorado College, or Depauw University. They may even wonder if they aren't in Clemson, South Carolina, or a gymnasium of the SEC. Why the confusion? Because when one enters Fowler through its front doors they are greeted by the most generic mascots of organized sport: the Tiger. Aside from the four teams within our own conference that must fight for distinction as the ______ Tigers, how many other teams in the Southeastern United States is Sewanee competing against when it lays claim to its mascot? If Sewanee is as intriguing and matchless as we, the students, lead ourselves to believe, then why shouldn't we choose a mascot that is unrivaled by the likes of LSU, Auburn, Missouri, and Memphis?

In 1981, The University of California, Santa Cruz entered NCAA intercollegiate sports as the awe-inspiring "sea lions." In 1986, after putting up with being represented by their blubbering, land-challenged friend, the student body voted via referendum to declare the "banana slugs" as their fearless mascot. In February 2008, ESPN named the Banana Slug as one of the top ten nicknames in college basketball. Sewanee can do the same.

There are many alternative mascots, both good and particularly bad, that students and faculty have proposed: the Fog, the Purple Fog, the Haze, the Angels, the Parsons, the Mountains, the Bishops, the Reverends, the Domain, the Trees, the Forests, the Cliffs, the Clifftops, the Climbers, and etc. It is not too late to get a mascot that represents a part of what Sewanee is, at least more so than an animal found only in zoos or other continents. Let's choose something that is distinctly Sewanee that people will recognize as belonging to the University of the South and not Baton Rouge, Louisiana, or Memphis Tennessee. Let's choose the Fog, or the Angel, or the Bishops, at least that way we won't have to wonder if we are in the right gym when we enter Fowler through the front doors.