Students discuss their favorite mascots

When you think of sports, the first thing you probably think of is the teams or the players; the competitive standpoint of the particular sport can stand out as well. Team mascots, however, have also played a role in sports entertainment.

They have become synonymous with sports to the point where it’s hard to imagine a team or game without a mascot, and it’s not just professional teams. Some of the more famous or well-known mascots actually come from the world of college sports. 

One of the top teams in the nation lead by Nick Saban is the Alabama Crimson Tide football team, and their mascot is not something you would expect for a school without an animal in its name: an elephant.

 Utica College first-year student Macie Ford stands by this mascot as being the best in sports. 

“Big Al is just awesome to see around the game, especially when people wear the elephant head,” Ford said. “It’s really just great to see that sports can be so much more than just people playing a game.” 

Tuning in around Saturday afternoon and watching ESPN’s “College Gameday” has fans witnessing Lee Corso pick his winners for all of the games while wearing the mascot head for the predicted winner of the featured game.

The mascot for the Georgia Bulldogs comes as another interesting point for students here at UC because it’s real. A living bulldog named Uga was ranked the best college mascot in the county by USA Today in the summer of 2019. 

Senior Adam Ziobrowski said that Uga was his choice for the best mascot in sports. 

“To know that they use the same family of bulldogs for generations is just cool because you can see how this goes so much beyond just the sport of college football,” Ziobrowski said. “I like that the school has a mausoleum near the entrance of the stadium of past UGAs. They are the only school to bury their mascots when they pass.”

College football isn’t the only sport with good mascots though–professional sports have also had their fair share of iconic mascots. A famous one for students to think of comes out of Philadelphia in the form of the Phillie Phanatic. 

Senior Drew Keglovits, who is from Pennsylvania, believes that the Phillies mascot is the best in sports. 

“The Phillie Phanatic has become a sort of a staple in Pennsylvania,” Keglovits said.  “Everywhere you go up there people know about the Phillie Phanatic.” 

More and more students realize that sports are more than just a game on the field. It’s the complete entertainment package that can bring people together.