It is not a matter of "going too far", just a topic of conversation for the off-season. DI colleges that are either all-male (if that is still legal) or co-ed:
1. You have Delaware, who named their bird "yoUdee" (an offshoot of Rudy) in an attempt to hide the fact that a Hen is a female chicken. What is worse is that most of the New Englanders do not know this. Then you have those idiots, mostly in Ohio and Michigan, that think a Wolverine is a female wolf and not a weasel.
2. You have a number of schools which, like YSU, added a female mascot in the 60's. Purdue (Patty) like most DI schools, dropped their female mascot. Only a few, like YSU, BG keeps their female counterpart to Freddie (Frieda) Falcon. There is also Josephine "Josie" Bruin for UCLA.
Many people want a tougher-looking Penguin. Now the original Bruin was like Pete Penguin in that he was happy and smiling. Many wanted a more ferocious-looking bear mascot. Then one of the universities major benefactors reminded UCLA that it made "cents" not to "change" it as the mascot was supposed to be a bear cub, a reflection of the school's youth, as compared to most of historic private institutions like USC, Stanford and the other more established universities. So the decision was to allow Joe to show his teeth, but not be very ferocious.
Interestingly enough, since I am doing all of this research, most of the major women's colleges have no mascots at all. No this is not political, it is simply that most of them had no sports at the time.
Political Correctness:
- As most of us know, the American Indian mascots are being removed.
- Most mascots that have guns are also being removed. In fact the University of Arizona's Wilbur the Wildcat has been stripped of his guns. The university has been sued on several occasions for the guns that still adorn the main statue that remains on campus.
-Even though they were married, it is officially Mr and Ms Wuffwuff for the Carolina Wolfpack.
