CollegeHoops.net rates the Diplomat Mascots!

Top 10 College Mascots

With non-conference play all but done and conference play starting up, CollegeHoops.net decided to bridge the two with a topic more important than both: mascots!

Mascots were originally used to help bring good luck to a team, and the theme has stayed ever since. This listing gives love to mascots from all over college basketball. Some are household names. Others you may have never heard of until now. Regardless of publicity (but not hilarity), I bring you the top college basketball mascots in the land.

10. Syracuse Orangeman – We'll start with one of the more well-known mascots. What’s a better mascot than a giant orange with a blue hat? Sightings include numerous ESPN commercials and all Syracuse basketball home games. The orange has played a crucial role in Jim Boeheim’s success over the years.

9. UCSC Banana Slug – Arguably the toughest mascot in all of sports. It was once removed as mascot by the dean at the university, but a strong rally by the UCSC faithful made sure the slug returned to its rightful home. Pulp Fiction fans will recognize the banana slug on the t-shirt that John Travolta wears in the movie.

8. WKU Hilltopper (aka big red blob) – This thing is anything but a hilltopper, and has stemmed from former WKU coach E.A. Diddle nervously clutching a red towel during games. Public appearance of hilarity: the commercial in which the blob is sitting in his prom date’s kitchen being grilled by her parents, and the dad looks at it and simply says “I don’t even know what you are.”

7. Stanford Tree – Many fans may be thinking “Why the hell is the Cardinal’s mascot a tree?” It stems from the fact that the tree is a redwood tree, as Palo Alto, CA is not too far from California’s historic redwood forests (having been there, I’d recommend it to those looking to get as far away from every form of human civilization as possible). Nonetheless, the tree is comical-looking, and as ESPN’s Pat Forde can surely tell you, is a lot of fun to dress as.

6. Delaware Fighting Blue Hen (YouDee) – What’s more fierce than a hen? A blue hen!

5. Dartmouth’s Keggy the Keg – This mascot was never approved by Dartmouth, but Keggy sure has brought a lot of excitement to Hanover, NH. This keg was the #1 fan at all things Dartmouth, and proved to be a good luck charm at countless lacrosse matches. Who could say no to a keg that’s grinning from ear to ear? I certainly couldn’t.

4. St. Joe’s Hawk – Students at St. Joe’s have plenty of financial incentive to tryout to be the hawk for basketball ga mes, because doing so waives all tuition fees. The catch? The mascot has to flap its arms for all 40 minutes. Eager students should hit the gym before attempting such a feat.

3. Franklin and Marshall College Diplomats – These mascots made the list because I nearly fell out of my chair laughing after I saw them. What’s better than two of America’s Founding Fathers smiling and giving the thumbs up?

2. UCSB's "Fanton of the Dome" - UCSB's athletics teams are the Gauchos.. which is cool to begin with. Second, they play in the Thunderdome, which not only sounds bad ass, its a good arena too. And finally, add in the "Fantom of the Dome" and you have the ultimate combination. The Fantom doesn't appear at all games anymore, as he's just a random dude who lives in So Cal, but he showed up for the Gauchos big showdown with UNC and will no doubt continue to be a UCSB tradition.

1. Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) Nads – First off all, I didn’t even know RISD had a mascot. But if I were to guess what the school’s mascot would be, I certainly wouldn’t have guessed that it’d be a pair of testicles. Scrotie is the number one fanatic for RISD sporting events, and makes the list due to the hilarious amount of shame and disgust it brings to the university.

Camps, Critters, and Continued growth!!!

Although our business got hit by a nearly 20 percent decrease last year (let's factor in the car accident, baby arrival and a few recessions in the economy!) we are approaching 2009 with renewed enthusiasm and interest by clients.

We're keeping prices the same for 2009 camps and costumes. We're also seeing a greater interest in recycling old costumes for services, and also seeing more trade for services. Thank you Schwanger Brothers, Universal Athletic Club and Isaac's for some great trades this past year!

Our mascot ministry got to visit Philadelphia five times this year, entertain at a half dozen ballparks, and keep our church kids wondering, "who is in there now???". The mascots even made Penn Del's Kids Camp a little more fuzzier this past summer.

Keystone Mascots is excited that our local baseball teams are warming up to what we can do for them, offering cost-cutting repairs, refurbishments and performer referrals.

And we're also seeing a few more camp host inquiries! Keep your eye out for camp locations outside of Eastern Central Pennsylvania!

Thank you to all of you who have contributed in some small way to our business and ministries. God continues to bless what we do, and we want to continue to pass on those blessings to you.

Sincerely,

Erin

Mascot Camp footage!

Teens learn to give mascots personality
By STEVE SNYDER
Staff Writer
Lebanon Daily News


PALMYRA — Rooty, the Lebanon Cedar mascot, and one of his arch rivals, the Manheim Central Baron, have been engaging in some playful fun this week and learning how to do their jobs better.

Both are attending a three-day camp at Paramount Sports Complex which wraps up today.

Tonight both Rooty and the Baron, along with about 20 other campers, will perform at the Lancaster Barnstormers’ baseball game.

Abdiel Perez will be playing the part of Rooty tonight.

“Everyone loves Rooty,” he said. “We’re different than everyone else.”

By “different,” Perez meant that Rooty is a tree, not an animal or human or some cross between the two, like the Phillie Phanatic.

“Some of the other mascots say a tree’s not cool,” said Sylvana Quinones, another one of the five students who will be sharing duties as Rooty during the upcoming school year. “But we think he’s cool. Our school’s the Cedars, so we have to have a tree.”

Ashley Effrece, the third Lebanon student, all sophomores, to attend the camp, said each of the five has different talents, but they’ll all look the same when they are in costume.

“>You can’t distinguish who’s in the suit,” Perez said.

“If Rooty’s dancing, it’s me,” Effrece said.

“Rooty could be hyper one day and calm the next,” Quinones said of the student performers’ personalities.

“Rooty could be a boy one day and a girl the next.”

Each say the camp helped them play the role of Rooty.

“I’ve learned a lot,” Effrece said. “I never thought being a mascot was such hard work.”

“It’s definitely worth it,” Perez said. “They’re teaching us a lot.”

The camp is the brainchild of Erin Blank, who operates Lancaster-based Keystone Mascots, a company that trains mascots, helping with character development, acting skills, safety and costume care. Its Web site is http://www.keystonemascots.com.

Blank has a lengthy resume, including portrayals of PAWS of the Detroit Tigers, Coco of the Hershey Bears and Silo of the Lancaster Barnstormers. She was also the original Screwball of the Reading Phillies some 20 years ago.

“Personality plays a greater role than skill,” Blank told her student mascots yesterday after they took a break from tumbling and bouncing on a trampoline.

Campers came from as far away as Alabama.

Evan Bowker, a freshman from Oneonta, N.Y., will be his high school’s Yellow Jacket, Buzz.

“I wanted to change his name to Sting, but the fans didn’t like it,” said Buzz, er Bowker.

In addition to his mascot duties, Bowker wrestles and plays lacrosse.

Like Bowker, Phil Wubbolt is an athlete, playing basketball and volleyball when he’s not portraying the Baron during football games and wrestling matches.

At about 6-foot-2, Wubbolt is a tight fit for the Baron outfit, which might soon require some alterations since he’s just a freshman.

“I was recommended by the athletic director,” said Wubbolt, who beat out two other candidates to play the Baron because he can do push-ups.

That’s important because the Baron does a push-up for every point Manheim Central’s football team scores, which sometimes means a couple hundred in the course of a game. After all, 7+14+21+28+35 ... starts to add up to some serious pushups.

The three Cedars said the Baron has been making some unkind comments about Lebanon’s football team.

“We just tell him we kill them in basketball,” Effrece said. “It’s not even worth our time to play them.”

The two teams won’t be meeting in hoops the next two years, unless it’s in a Lancaster-Lebanon League playoff game, because Lebanon has moved back to Section Two while Manheim Central remains in Section Three; Lebanon has never lost to Manheim Central in boys’ basketball.

Rooty will just have to hope his or her Cedars can beat the Barons in football this season for the first time ever.



Team mascots learn their craft: Overacting
by MONICA VON DOBENECK, Of The Patriot-News
Thursday July 31, 2008, 4:56 PM

Wildcats, dogs, wolves, a rooster, Ben Franklin, a mad cow and other assorted creatures have been spending the week at Paramount Sports to learn how to express jubilation or shame without using facial expressions or voice.

It's not easy, according to several of the participants at Mascots Camp. "You have to be very dramatic," said Abdiel Perez, 16, who will be portraying a cedar tree for Lebanon High School football and field hockey teams come fall. "Somebody has to bring that extra energy, that spark."

Ellie Kranzel, 15, portraying a wildcat for Mechanicsburg High School, said if your team loses a point, you have to cover your head in shame, maybe stomp on the ground. She did this kind of thing last year for basketball, track and even the Brain Busters team.

"I've always thought, look at that job. It's such a good job," she said.

On Thursday, the students sweated in their costumes while mascot trainers Erin Blank and Charlton Jordan shouted out directions: "Walk in a macho way"; "Walk like a 3-year-old"; "Walk like a pregnant woman."

Blank gave the participants a story line to follow: "You're at a football game. Your team just made the first touchdown. Your team just won the game! But the referee says it doesn't count. You lose. And it's your fault."

Amy Amato, a senior at Lancaster's Franklin & Marshall College dressed as Ben Franklin, first pranced around gleefully and whipped off her jacket in triumph. As the news got worse, she stomped on her jacket, kicked the wall.

"It's good to learn how to express ourselves when trapped in these heavy costumes," she said later. "The costumes can be intimidating, but we need to encourage people. I feel it really helps raise school spirit."

While many of the costumed characters were high school or college team mascots, there were a smattering of commercial and other characters as well.

Matt Nissley, inside the mad red cow "Cylo," is the official mascot for the Lancaster Barnstormers professional baseball team. James Mathis, 17, represented an enzyme for Kline's Service Septic Repair. Father David Shoemaker, dressed as Blueregard the Supercat, is a Catholic priest from Eufaula, Alabama, who uses the character in his youth ministry.

Ben Rand, 18, of Harrisburg was dressed as a rooster for the Harrisburg Horizons basketball team, but his day job is a candy bar at Hershey Park. His dream career is to portray Chip, Dale or Pluto at Disney World, and he is taking theater classes at Harrisburg Area Community College to that end.

"That's what my heart is set on," he said.

Camp director Blank has spent most of her adult life as a professional costumed character, including stints with the Reading Phillies, the Detroit Tigers, the Washington Capitols, the Lancaster Barnstormers and the Hershey Bears. She cut back to start a family, but still coordinates and trains performers and makes costumes.

"I'm in the fifth generation of basketball coaches, but I didn't have the talent to play," she said. "I guess that's how I got into this."

Soul Man Brings Home the Blues!

This off-season the Philadelphia Soul mascot, Soul Man, got a subtle upgrade to his look. Gone is the latex skin, velcro patches in his hair and batting gloves. Soul Man is softer, offers more mobility in his head (the old head pushed against his chest!), has fleece hands, and an electric blue zoot suit to add to his classic black button-down. Soul Man is now 100% washable, including his head!
Keystone Mascots even went a step further and offered embroidery for every logo mark, including his lapel wings, and an interchangeable hat band so he can always stay sharply dressed.
We are grateful for the Soul to give us the nod in upgrading their number one fan, and look forward to seeing him jazz up the turf for years to come!

Mascot's new look: Caped Spidey a little more fierce

Amy Burlage - Collegian Reporter

Spidey, the University of Richmond's beloved mascot underwent a considerable wardrobe change this month.

After an anonymous donor decided that Spidey needed a makeover, a focus group was organized, comprising students, alumni and athletic department administrators.

Claudia Coons, a student member of the focus group, said the group had two main goals: to make Spidey more fierce and more mobile.

"People felt like he was too soft and over-cuddly, too much like a teddy bear," Coons said. "We needed to make him scary but not so scary that the little kids were not attracted to him anymore."

The group started working during the summer and eventually partnered up with Keystone Mascots to make sure the suit was available for the men's basketball home opener on Nov. 10. They talked about ideas, sketches and concepts and eventually ended up with 20 potential revisions of the costume, Keystone representative Erin Blank said.

The end result has only four limbs instead eight, smaller shoes and hands and a webbed cape. The costume is tight-fitting and less bulky. Spidey's old suit weighed 40 pounds, and the new costume is made mostly of spandex so that the person wearing it is more exposed and is easier to interact with, Coons said.

"The new Spidey is going to be able to do a lot more things with his body," said Jana Ross, assistant athletic director for marketing and fan development. "The costume is much easier to move around in."

The new Spidey costume is a definite a relief for the person inside, said an anonymous "Spidey." According to this person, one of the best alterations is that his head is connected to the suit, making it a lot less cumbersome and more functional.

"In the old suit I couldn't do a cartwheel but in this suit we will be able to do things like that," Spidey said.

In addition to changing his look, there was talk about changing Spidey's name. Although a new name has not been established, Coons said that there was no name printed on the new version of the costume in order to leave this option open.

Blank said it took 10 weeks to make the suit, and although she could not disclose how much it cost, she said mascot costume costs could range from a couple hundred dollars to $25,000. She said mascots costumes could last up to 10 years if properly taken care of, and to make sure that Spidey is long-lived, Spidey went to a "mascot training boot camp" where he was taught how to take care of himself.

"Spidey learned how to clean himself and stitch himself up," Blank said. "He is the three dimensional face of the university, and the last thing we want to hear is that he lost an arm or a leg."

Men's basketball coach Chris Mooney said the team appreciates the hard work the athletic department is putting into enhancing the college atmosphere and school spirit through Spidey.

"It is especially great for the kid fans," he said. "The new character is very appealing and gets them excited and involved."

The anonymous "Spidey" did make it clear that although this new costume brings about change, it is not going to create a completely different character.

"The new Spidey will be able to do leaps and bounds more than the old, but none of us are gymnasts. We are not going to start somersaulting through the air all of a sudden."

Updates DONE!

...well except for the nominal grammar check.

Check out http://www.mascot.net, http://www.crittercrossing.org, and http://www.keystonemascots.com and let me know what you think!

Yah, 11 years and still roaring along!

October 2005 Spotlight - YOU!!!

Mascot of the Month -
. . . YOU!!! . . . Mascot Adoption!!!
NFHS Initiates Program to Help Schools Affected by Hurricanes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Bob Gardner
INDIANAPOLIS, IN (September 30, 2005) — High schools interested in helping schools affected by the recent disasters in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas can adopt a school with a similar nickname through the Mascot Adoption Program (MAP) initiated by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).
Schools across the United States are encouraged to initiate fund-raising efforts, or perhaps use donations from ticket proceeds, to provide funds for schools damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
“As the national organization for high school sports, we have received calls from schools across America wanting to help those affected by these disasters,” said Robert F. Kanaby, NFHS executive director. “There has been a great outpouring of sympathy and concern, and I expect we will have many schools that will become involved in assisting those schools in the Gulf South that have suffered great losses.”
The MAP program will be orchestrated through the NFHS Web site, www.nfhs.org. A list of the schools affected by these disasters has been posted, along with the nicknames of the schools. A total of 130 schools (92 in Louisiana and 38 in Mississippi) are included in the initial list. Schools interested in becoming involved with this fund-raising effort can find a school that has a similar nickname and choose to adopt that school by entering all the necessary information on the Web site.
When the sponsoring school completes its fund-raising activities, the school will send its contribution directly to the disaster-affected school in the Gulf South.
“Once a school selects another school to adopt, we encourage the sponsoring school to publicize, within its student body and community, the names of the school and mascot it has adopted,” Kanaby said. “Schools helping schools, student-athletes and activity participants helping their counterparts – this is a great opportunity to help these schools and individuals that are in desperate need and provide a service leadership opportunity to all.”
For more information on the Mascot Adoption Program, contact Bob Gardner, chief operating officer at the NFHS in Indianapolis.

MEDIA CONTACT: Bruce Howard or John Gillis, 317-972-6900.

(Thank you to NFHS for allowing MascotNet to publish this information!)