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One thing about American universities always boggles my mind – the way they treat their mascot. The university is almost subservient and hospitable to a point of extreme in treating their animal mascots specifically. My previous university, Georgia Tech had Buzz – a bee; which was in fact a guy dressed in a largish bee costume acting like a possessed madman during game days.
Texas A&M is a whole different story; although they don’t have a flagship mascot like LSU Tigers or Georgia Bulldogs; they make it up with Reveille VII (they actually have suffixes!) – an American Collie. This dog, according to my roommate is considered royalty in College Station at least by the ‘Fightin Aggies’. As my roommate likes to put it, everything out here is a tradition. If you do something extraordinary or for that matter, even ordinary, it is considered a tradition and expected to be repeated every year by future Aggies. The mascot is chosen from a ‘nationally acclaimed’ kennel and a special college delegation led by the President himself goes to the kennel to formally accept the mascot. It must be a lucky dog to be selected as an Aggie Mascot. As tales go, the dog is under the care and protection of Company E-2, the Corps of Cadets who treat the dog better than they would treat their own mothers. After all, she is the highest ranking officer of the Corps of Cadets. Imagine being outranked by a dog! For that matter, she is considered the First Lady of the university. How’s that for belittling the President’s wife?
Until prevented by the Health Administration, the dog was allowed
unfettered access to any place in College Station including bars,
restaurants, and cafes. If the dog happened to jump on the bed of a
cadet, the poor chap had to sleep on the floor (there is picture
proof; check the website below). There is almost a team of cadets that are fully involved in the
care of the mascot and I presume they get their tuition paid for the
work they do. Imagine your resume citing dog care for almost four years
as a central mention. Heck, Reveille has her own flash-enabled website complete with woofs and
barks as a background sound and I guess she lives in air-conditioned
quarters with gourmet dog food served daily.
University of Georgia has a bulldog that receives equal royal
treatment. If you thought this was too much, LSU has a real live full
grown tiger on campus. Consider taking their mascot out for a walk or
applying for an assistantship to take care of the animal. All said and done, it still is fun and goes a long way to boost school spirit. So before you
say, it is a dog’s life; be careful you just might be wrong.
by Patrix | on Monday, August 8th, 2005 at 9:00 pm | 
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August 9th, 2005 at 12:37 am reply
Patrix,
Stanford’s mascot is a tree, and it has a cavalcade of bodyguards because the damn students from Berkeley always try to kidnap him/her.
Vikram
August 9th, 2005 at 2:57 am reply
Patrix, it’s a Collie, not a coolie. Typified by Lassie, a breed generally known as the Rough Coated Collie. I’d happily agree to tending the dogs in return for an Assistantship!
A collie is a dog, and a coolie is an Indian back in Bangalore or Pune doing work for our colleagues back there in the promised land. :))
August 9th, 2005 at 9:32 am reply
Vikram, At least it doesn’t climb into your bed, forcing you to sleep on the floor :)
Heretic, oops! my bad. Corrected it. The mascot reminded me of Lassie too. And heck, I don’t mind tending the dogs too…at least one assistantship I can look fwd to ;)
August 9th, 2005 at 9:35 am reply
Our mascot is a bull. thankfully we dont have a live one on campus. though there is a lot of bullshit that goes on..so he must be somewhere..
August 9th, 2005 at 12:28 pm reply
This is why I went to a Canadian university. That and the Greek system. Because obnoxious people don’t have nearly enough ways of being more obnoxious.
August 9th, 2005 at 2:46 pm reply
Sqrl, LOL! totally loved that bullshit :)Aggies simply wag their tails in agreement.
Har, a mascot’s warm costume actually would be pretty handy during the cold football season. But then again, who has time to look at the mascot during a rough hockey game where almost everyone looks like one.
August 9th, 2005 at 3:07 pm reply
Very funny -
It reminds me of Ace Ventura wrestling with the the mascot hahah
Well then this country has a huge store for dogs and cat where our country cannot even feed all the people
August 9th, 2005 at 4:29 pm reply
Ours was an alligator..disgusting, i say! There were enough live ones walking from the swamps to scare the living daylights out of us. The Mascot was a gator called Albert and his female counterpart Alberta.
I moved. my new blog id.
August 9th, 2005 at 8:50 pm reply
@mit, everything is big out here not just pet stores.
Alpha, ah-ha!thats where you have been hiding. I guess, busted identity doesn’t make blogging easier, eh? But I am glad to read you again. BTW what were Albert and Alberta’s baby gators called? Bert and Bertha?
August 10th, 2005 at 9:30 am reply
Nice one. Do you know about Doga (Dogs doing Yoga too)?
December 15th, 2005 at 5:30 am reply
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