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= US College Sporting Mascots =

“A mascot is any human animal or object which is meant to represent a group with a common public identity, this can include schools, sporting teams and brands”. Mascots have existed for an extensive period of time and many people recognise teams via their mascots and in certain instances mascots have become ‘celebrities’ and gained fame and attention. Mascots have existed for a long time in US College Sporting teams since Handsome Dan a bulldog made his inaugural appearance in 1892 at Yale. Since this first appearance their role has grown overtime and they have taken on more responsibilities than just looking cute. However as their role grew so did the issues surrounding in particular surrounding native American controversy and religious symbolism.

There Use

The role of these college mascots has grown tangent to their appearance. From the early stages when fluffy little animals were the hit, to people dressed up in suits in a variety of different characters such as the Stanford Tree.. The use of mascots was initially as a way of motivating a crowd, the animal would represent the team and the college and therefore when it appeared the crowd would cheer and get behind it. However, slowly over time they have become celebrities, the face of the school and even brought in money. Mascots such as Sparty from the Michigan State University. Have racked up followings on social media in numbers as high as 27,000 With this fame and celebrity like status the mascots slowly grew to become the face of the university appearing almost everywhere. Today mascots still play a large role in motivating the crowd and the team but they do it in vastly different ways as before, appearing at the half time and playing games with the students or having a little area before the game where fans can come take photos or do activities in tents hosted by these mascots.

History
Origin

To understand the history of college sporting mascots and how we now have these celebrity-like mascots who are the face of colleges rallying tens of thousands of members of the audience with erratic performances, dances and shows we have to go to the beginning. Although it isn’t particularly clear when mascots began to be put to use there is a general agreement around America that Handsome Dan was the first appearance of a mascot in US Colleges. Handsome Dan was a pet bulldog of a Yale classmate in 1892 who would make appearances at all of the Yale sporting events. "Furthermore, there are references to a live mascot at Arkansas as far back as the early 1900s, when the school switched  its nickname from the Cardinals to the Razorbacks; today's mascot, Tusk, can trace his lineage back through a single family line of mascots dating to the 1960s.”

The Shift

In the early 60s there was a shift from live to costumed mascots, the first of this shift was Brutus Buckeye who debuted in 1964 at Ohio State University. Shortly following this was the San Diego Chicken who was birthed on the back of a 1974 radio promotion and the Phillie Phanatic in 1977 who although weren't college mascots but rather professional league mascots begun the mass movement from live to costumed (both of these mascots took initiative from the Muppets).

Impact of College Mascots
“Team mascots are a unique asset that can be leveraged by sponsors to amplify and differentiate their activations. The long tradition of notable mascots can provide an opportunity for sponsors to appeal to both older and younger fans”. A mascot is a large part of the live game experience for fans, they lead cheers, take photos with fans, entertain audiences and even have there own stalls and sections selling their teams merchandise. As the popularity for mascots has grown over the years the relationship between a mascot and a team/college has grown to the extent where they are just as recognizable as many of the players. “The positive fan interaction, high recognizability, and consistent presence of mascots, have led some brands to leverage mascots in their activations.” Furthermore, the busy schedule of an athlete can make it difficult for the athlete to make appearances and sponsored activations. However, a mascot can be used with significant more ease at these events which can attract students, sell merchandise and drive popularity for the college. College mascots also benefit from the cross generational appeal as both older fans who have grown up with the mascot and their children will both recognise the mascot.

Contemporary Issues Regarding College Mascots
Objections to school and professional sports team mascots that were described as racially or ethnically offensive were once widely dismissed as trivial, but over the last decade the movement has gained steam. Hundreds of colleges have changed their mascots from ones that were called offensive to more neutral ones.

Native American Controversy

Within recent years the NCAI or the “National Congress of American Indians” have begun striking against the use of native american symbolism and stereotypes in the use of college mascots. A number of colleges have already changed their mascots such as the Mississippi college who retired their mascot Chief Choc.

Indian mascots and stereotypes present a misleading image of Indian people and feed the historic myths that have been used to whitewash a history of oppression. Despite decades of work to eliminate the use of discrimination and derogatory images in American sports, the practice has not gone away.

“NCAI strongly opposes the use of derogatory Native sports mascots. However, in the case where mascots refer to a particular Native nation or nations, NCAI respects the right of individual tribal nations to work with universities and athletic programs to decide how to protect and celebrate their respective tribal heritage.”

Religious Symbolism

Although the scale of religious symbolism issues is nothing in comparison to the native American controversy there has still been incidents over the years in particular with the use of devils and other religious images in mascots. For example the Dickinson College a liberal arts college located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania is a college that uses a red devil as a mascot. Parents and members of the public are often opposed to the use of a red devil worried as the devil is a universal symbol of evil. However, there are still many in the community who believe that the mascot is just an innocent symbol.

Answers to Module 7 Questions


 * 1) Photograph
 * 2) JPEG Photo
 * 3) Knowledge Sharing
 * 4) My media is a photo of a collection of people doing group study, the people are bent over whilst one student explains work on a tablet to another boy.
 * 1) My media is a photo of a collection of people doing group study, the people are bent over whilst one student explains work on a tablet to another boy.