Amalgamblog

College football makes its glorious return this weekend and so the folks here at the Amalgamblog turn our attention to the gridiron. Today, we look at the mascots. Now, any team can name their team the “Tigers” or “Eagles” or just plug in their state nickname (“Buckeyes”, “Hoosiers”, “Wolverines”, etc.). But these 10 schools take the road less traveled and, for that, we salute you. Here are the Top 10 Most Awesomely Random Mascots in all of Division 1 football.

10. Furman Paladins

I will freely confess this is an absolutely biased pick. The paladin was an honorable knight in medieval times that served Charlemagne. Many schools go with other deviations of “Knights” whether they be golden or scarlet or whatever. But Furman? They get down to specifics and that’s what sets Furman apart. Bonus points: Paladin was the name of the main character in the old western TV show “Have Gun, Will Travel”; a little shout out to the Trail West.

9. Oregon Ducks

Ducks may seem like nothing special…except they are the most awesome form of water fowl in the world. But the PAC-10 school takes things a step further than just using a cool bird. They got permission from Disney so that cool bird is actually Donald Duck dressed up in the Eugene University’s green and yellow.

8. Idaho Vandals

What would possess a school to make their nickname remind others of adolescent troublemakers? Well, apparently the University of Idaho could not come up with a mascot for years. In 1920, a sportswriter wrote that the Potato State school was “vandalizing” its opponent in basketball. By the next year, the name Vandals stuck. Though with a 1-11 record last year, there wasn’t much vandalizing done by Idaho. But I guess “Harmless Citizens” doesn’t make a good nickname (apologies to fans of the Idaho Vandals).

7. Minnesota Golden Gophers

Technically, some people refer to Minnesota as the “Gopher State” (it involved a 19th Century political cartoon that was probably hilarious during the James Buchanan administration) but the state’s official nickname is  ”The Land of 10,000 Lakes”; just to make clear that we’re not breaking a rule. It’s one thing to name a team after a burrowing rodent, but why a golden one? Apparently during the 1930s, the team wore all gold uniforms and their radio announcer started calling them the Golden Gophers. See? All of this educational.

6. Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns

No explanation necessary here. But I’ll add one little thing. Cayenne, their mascot that entertains at football games, is a pepper with eyes, mouth, arms, and legs. I think Chillipepper has found a new mascot.

5. Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Back in the day, this ACC school went by nicknames like “The Old Gold & Black” and “Baptists”. So how did it become “Demon Deacons”? Apparently, someone referred to the team as the Demon Deacons to reflect its Baptist college roots and fighting spirit. It caught on. Bonus points for the Deacon being one of the most dapper mascots in football.

4. Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

Remember how I talked about Furman and getting specific? Coastal took things a step further. They took the Gamecock of South Carolina (a semi-obscure mascot as is) and went with the rooster hero found in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: the Chanticleer. Thus one of Seesalt’s homes has possibly the most literary mascot in all of college football. Bravo, Chaucer’s Chickens, bravo.

3. Campbell Fighting Camels

Campbell is re-starting their football program this year, so I just have this one question. How does a camel fight? Spit?

2. Delaware Blue Hens

If you do some digging, this unique mascot makes a lot of sense. The blue hen is the state bird of Delaware and is apparently quite a fierce piece of poultry. But the thing I can’t get over is this: Walk up to any average person and ask them what a hen is and they’ll probably say a “girl chicken”. So when this football team, a consistent power in the FCS (formerly 1-AA), runs on the field announced as the “Blue Hens” most of us think, “Hmmm….Indigo Girl Chickens”.

1. TCU Horned Frogs

Texas Christian University set the standard for random mascots; making its appearance on the 1897 TCU yearbook and in 1915 it worked its way onto the school seal. Their school fight song includes the line “F-R-O-G-S F-I-G-H-T”. And the name of the mascot that entertains at football games? Super Frog. For all of this, TCU we salute you.

Feel free to share any other teams that you think deserve to be on our list by clicking on the comments link below.

Tags: college football, mascots

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 7:06 pm and is filed under Sports, Tomfoolery, Top Ten Tuesday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.