By Ethan Shea

With the beginning of April comes not only warmer weather but the end of March Madness. Although the tournament is over, I was left with a lingering interest in all the different mascots I’d been watching. We already know Will D. Cat is the best one out there, but what about mascots of the stranger sort?

To my surprise, with a little research I found a number of odd school mascots, not necessarily from universities that were in the tournament but just in general.

Here are some of the best ones I came across:

Image: Scottsdale Community College

Artie the Artichoke is the mascot of Scottsdale Community College in Scottsdale, Arizona. Artie’s vegetative identity is a refreshing break from the animal mascots we’re used to.

Blockie is an unofficial mascot of the University of Houston –  Clear Lake with a complicated history. The official mascot of this school is Hunter the Hawk, but Blockie is still trademarked by the school. Having been created as a logo in 1999, Blockie is a lively rendering of an adorable inanimate object.

Image: Evergreen State College

The Evergreen State College of Olympia, Washington is supported by Speedy the Geoduck. Speedy is certainly one of, if not the most obscure animal mascots in the country. A geoduck (pronounced gooey-duck) is a burrowing clam that can live well over 100 years. Evergreen State boasts that “Speedy is one of just two non-insect invertebrate college mascots.” The other is Sammy the Slug of UC Santa Cruz.

Image: “The Signal” Reporter, Cassidy Smith

There are some pretty interesting, to say the least, mascots out there, and I encourage you to scour the internet for more. Wikipedia has put together an exhaustive list of college mascots in the United States, so if you have some time on your hands, it’s a fun internet rabbit hole to explore.

That being said, my main takeaway from this mascot search is that Will D. Cat remains superior. If you don’t believe me, check out this blog recounting his recent visit to Falvey. Any cat in the stacks is a friend of mine!

Ethan Shea is a second-year graduate student in the English Department and Graduate Assistant at Falvey Library.