3.19.2008

Exhibit 7.26

In honor of Drake University having made the NCAA tournament, I plan on doing some comparisons between them and their first round opponent, Western Kentucky University. I've always wanted to be one of those people who gets really behind their alma mater. I swear to god, if they get past the second round I'm buying a Drake license plate holder for my car.




Mascot/Logo












Bulldogs vs. Hilltoppers

Winner: Drake. The bulldog may not be the most original mascot, but the Hilltopper is just nonsensical. As far as I can tell they are named the Hilltoppers because A) fox hunting or B) coal mining or C) the campus just happens to be on a hill. Since the first two are examples of humanity at its lowest, I don't think they can win this one.

Also, the problem with an intangible mascot is that the concept must somehow be stretched into an image that conveys its meaning. As you can see, the Hilltoppers gave up on this and decided to go with Thing from The Addams Family waving a towel. On the plus side, they do have someone dress up in a Grimace-esque costume and play the role of jubilant, team-spirit inducing hill. Nothing wrong with that.

2 comments:

Pete said...

A lot of things can be said of Western Kentucky, most would probably be true.

However, I happen to believe that their mascot is the best one in all of sports. It's a cross between Grimace and Gossamer from the old Looney Tunes cartoons. It's fantastic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossamer_(Looney_Tunes)

A. Peterson said...

Yeah, I was too tough on the mascot. I hate the logo, but I do love that hill.

By the way, that Gossamer wikipedia entry is a must read.