Satire | Environmental mascots miss the mark

The NCAA officially groups all of the mascots in Division I athletics into nine categories — bears, birds, cats, dogs, miscellaneous, mythical, other animals, people and weather/elemental. For example, Pitt’s Panther mascot would fall into cats, while Robert Morris’ Colonials would fit into people. 

That said, there are other categorical breakdowns you can use. A historical category could see the George Mason Patriots while the Oregon Ducks could fall into an aquatic category. But there is one group of mascots that consistently misses the mark — those related to the environment, or environmental mascots.

Although these mascots claim to support the environment, the only thing they are doing is hurting it.

The Stanford Tree – Stanford University

Stanford’s tree mascot is quite possibly one of the most memorable and recognizable mascots in college sports. The Tree has been a major part of all Stanford sporting events since its inception in 1975.
Each person in the Tree gets one year as the mascot, and they travel to the games that most need the Tree there. 

One issue with this is how quickly the costume gets dirty and therefore requires frequent washing. Despite the mascot itself hypothetically promoting environmentalism, the reality is that the water consumption necessary for usage offsets any goodwill from the branding. It is also one of the few mascots to ever get banned from a collegiate tournament, as it received a ban from the 2007 NCAA women’s basketball tournament. 

West Virginia Mountaineer – West Virginia University

Named after the West Virginia state nickname of the Mountain State, the West Virginia Mountaineer is the official mascot of West Virginia University. Unlike many mascots that are costumed from head to toe, the Mountaineer mascot is simply a person wearing clothes themed to the West Virginia Mountaineer brand.

Part of the duties of the mascot outside of the normal pep duties include firing a real rifle during football games. This presents an issue as the rifle emits a significant amount of powder instead of live rounds, as well as quite a loud noise. Instead of using a sound effect through the robust sound system at Milan Puskar Stadium, they emit both air and noise pollution. Otherwise, the mascot wears a vest made of deer skin and a hat made out of raccoon skin.

This sort of usage of animal products is unsustainable and does not reflect the environmental image that the mascot should strive for. The mascot came under scrutiny in 2012 when the student who was the mascot for that year shot and killed a black bear. The mascot at any university is an ultimate reflection and representative of the school, and using the rifle given for hunting purposes marred the mascot’s public image.

Mascots across the board will run into their own issues. Some, like Penn State’s Nittany Lion, present themselves as a real thing but have never existed. However, no group offers as complex a history as the environmental category does.