Five Funny College Mascot Tales

University mascots invoke school spirit, camaraderie, and sportsmanship, but they also tell a lot about the universities they represent. The Gator in Florida, the Wolverine up in Michigan, and the Wildcat down in Arizona all tell a unique story about their institutions. Then there are a few that straight up perplex. Here are five perplexing college mascots, each with a story to tell.

University of Arkansas-Monticello Boll Weevils

The Boll Weevil isn’t often thought of as a vicious competitor, but a closer look into the genesis of this mascot will prove otherwise. The Boll Weevil, a small gray insect that is purported to have the ability to wipe out an entire cotton crop in the blink of an eye, was adopted by the students of UAM shortly after the university was founded in 1909. These students felt the boll weevil embodied a unique toughness and evoked a genuine fear across the south. The school’s website even claims the boll weevil “is the only thing tough enough to ever truly lick the South”. The Razorback over in Fayetteville can’t even make that claim. By the way, the Boll Weevils play their home games in the Cotton Boll. Of course they do.

University of California-Santa Cruz Banana Slugs

As long as we’re talking insects and creepy-crawlies, we should mention the good folks from UC-Santa Cruz. While the higher-ups suggest that the banana slug (actually a mollusk) is revered for its contemplation, flexibility, non-aggressiveness and, perhaps above all, an iconoclastic challenge toward the status quo, the students who demanded that the Slug be the official mascot in 1986, probably had ulterior motives.

The students met with much resistance from the Chancellor at the time (who had named a Sea Lion to be the mascot), but could not be deterred. They raised money, held press conferences and even went on Dave Letterman’s popular late night show in an effort to garner support for their movement (slow as it may have been with a slug). In the end, the Student Body held a vote and the Banana Slug ousted the Sea Lion by a 15 – 1 margin. Long live the Banana Slug

Presbyterian College Blue Hose

The school’s website proudly proclaims, “A Blue Hose is a fierce Scottish warrior. If you have ever seen the movie Braveheart, you have seen a true Blue Hose.”

That may be the case, but odds are that the team got their moniker in a slightly more mundane manner.

Walter Johnson, one of the College’s first athletic directors wrote the following, “It was about the sec¬ond or third year, 1915, if I remember right, Stockings. I think it happened this way: I changed uniform colors to blue, wearing blue stockings and jerseys, and some sports writer started calling in his articles the Presbyterian College teams the Blue Stockings.”

So, just like the Red Sox and the White Sox in baseball, the Blue Hose were known simply by the color of their hosiery all thanks to a bored sports writer.

Campbell University Fighting Camels

According to a well-researched documentary on the University, the nickname’s origin perhaps stretches back to the turn of the century. It is said that a large fire engulfed a number of the school’s original buildings and threatened to sink the hopes and dreams of the University’s founder, Dr. James Archibald Campbell. Well, in the aftermath, Z.T. Kivett, a prosperous landowner and contractor in the area, visited the school’s founder, seeking to encourage him.

As Dr. Campbell bemoaned the fate of the institution he had worked 13 years to build, Mr. Kivett said, “Your name’s Campbell; then get a hump on you! We’ve got work to do.” Dr. Campbell thought that Mr. Kivett said, “You’re a camel, get a hump on you.” Well, the buildings were rebuilt and the Campbell Camels were born out of the wreckage. I wonder if they have a contract with Gatorade or if they have to drink good ol’ Buies Creek water at all their games.

Webster University Gorloks

Mythical creatures are not uncommon as mascots. Canisius has their Golden Griffin, Depaul has their Blue Demon, and Wisconsin-Green Bay has their Phoenix, but tiny Webster University in St. Louis has perhaps the oddest mythical creature of all. The Gorlok is reported to have the paws of a speeding cheetah, the horns of a fierce buffalo and the face of a dependable Saint Bernard. Oh, and it doesn’t hearken back to any ancient mythology at all. It goes back to 1984 and a campus competition to name a new mascot.

The name “Gorlok” was actually derived from the combination of two streets that intersect in the heart of “Old Webster,” Gore and Lockwood avenues. Hence, the “Gorlok”. After much research, it appears that this is the one and only instance that a mascot derived its name from an intersection.