No.
Tennessee VOLUNTEERS -- mascot, Coonhound
Texas A&M AGGIES -- mascot, Collie
Louisiana CAJUNS -- mascot, Catahoula
See a trend?
When your nickname is a group of people, you have to be really careful with your mascots. It is best to have a mascot that furthers your identity as a people or it should simply be a background character. Otherwise, they become your de facto nickname.
For those of you who love Ragin' Cajuns, you should be adamantly against the Gator mascot.
Those are some pretty dogs. So how long until we have a $2 million "environment" for "RC I" (I actually think it would be a hoot to mock A&M by creating a run for the dog on campus and calling it RC's "environment" and then wheeling him into the stadium in a giant cage.)
Do you have Ron Guidry in mind?
Louisiana will never avoid the Bull Gator connection. Quit living in denial.
I have brought friends from Hawaii and Dayton Ohio to the campus Swamp and the main thing they were eager to see was the Alligators.
Long before any TV show brought Louisiana into the World's living room the one thing that caught their attention was Alligators. I speak of my cousins kn Nebraska, Alligators were a universal curiosity for them. This facination will continue long after any television show goes off the air.
You have an asset, use it.
Oh and the one on the sidelines would not be a mascot, but a crowd boosting spirit leader of sorts.
There are to many dogs in the NCAA, talk about not getting noticed and wasting money.
Missing the point Turbine.
If your mascot is different than your much marketed nickname, it would be wise to not interfere with that marketing.
You can bring all the people you want to see Cypress Swamp and the pretty baby alligators. Just don't make it the mascot, unless you are looking to replace Ragin Cajuns.
Don't think it can't happen, especially in today's bass ackwards political environment.
The history of the Catahoula is incredible. Originating from domesticated wolves of the local Indians and possibly interbreeding with Spanish war dogs around 500 years ago, then these wolf dogs were interbred with the Beauceron dogs brought in by the French in the 1700's. Bred to hunt the swamps and marshes of Louisiana. Now known worldwide for its bravery and ferocity yet still smart and docile enough to be a family pet.
This dog IS Louisiana.
Your objection seems to be that Alligators would present an overpowering brand identity. I don't see it that way, even though there would be no education curve needed.
None of the State symbols below could ever overpower Ragin' Cajuns.
Alligators, Brown Pelicans, Crawfish, Catahoula LEOPARD dogs, Magnolias, petrified Palmwood, White Perch, Honeybee and the Black Bear.
Of those, one is already universally accepted, some would require a dissertation to explain and one would only add to the Lafayette Indiana Leopard controversy.
Yes.
Unless you are plotting to change to the Louisiana Gators.
You won't be able to stop that. Talk about education curves. You would be constantly explaining to people what our proper nickname is and how we aren't copying Florida from the stadium name to our, uhh, spirit leader?
Don't go there.
Again, our situation is very similar to Tennessee and A&M. Would be wise to follow their model.
If 115 years of (on off) campus representation hasn't produced your claim (ok there is Ron Guidry) you have nothing to fear.
Personally I would LOVE to have the Florida Stadium conversation front and center, relish might be a better word. It would result in massive amounts of legitimate free advertising.
I understand your wanting to promote using the State Dog, CatahULa, as our mascot. But, I don't buy your argument that we would be referred to as the Gators because we have a Gator mascot to go along with our moniker, Ragin Cajuns. Alabama's mascot is an elephant and moniker is the Crimson Tide. That seems more akin to our situation. No one calls them the Alabama Elephants. I think using a Bullgator as a mascot would not be the same as Florida who uses the Gators (not Bullgators) as both their mascot and moniker. Or, what about Tulane with the Green Wave as their moniker and Pelican as their mascot? No one calls them the Tulane Pelicans.
And, what is wrong with using a Bullgator? There are hundreds of teams that are called the Tigers or Bulldogs, but only 1 with a moniker called Ragin Cajuns and only one with a moniker and mascot called the Gators. So, we would be only the 2nd school to use that as a mascot, not moniker. And, we would be in great company with a school like Florida. To just copy it is one thing. To have a history and tradition of having a Gator on campus in The Swamp is another. I don't think Florida was too concerned that our football stadium was called The Swamp before they adopted it. We can back-up any questions that come our way in that regard. Besides, Clemson and LSU are both the Tigers and both claim their stadiums are Death Valley. No problem there. So what if these are long standing traditions for both schools. The gator and Swamp are long standing traditions for us that we are only now choosing to emphasize. JMO.
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