We Need a Mascot!!

[Turbine]

That gator thing is so tired and overdone. The Cajuns have the most unique team name in the country, and we want to throw that all away for a run-of-the-mill gator. Capturing the essence of what a Cajun is a putting it into a mascot is hard, but it is worth it.

Bull Gator is probably the least tired "thing" in sports.

Not a single (outside of Louisiana) tourist passes though not wanting to see one.

Ragin' Cajuns and Gators are synonymous but not the least bit confusing.

When it comes to the sidelines, not making a caricature of the moniker Ragin' Cajuns is priority one.

Let the sideline roaming spirit leader and mascot act the fool.

jmo

[LouisianaB]

I think we should convert the north end zone hill into a miniature swamp with live gators in it. Every time we score a touchdown we feed them a chicken!!!

Hey! That was my idea.

[Lexhead]

Bull Gator is probably the least tired "thing" in sports.

Not a single (outside of Louisiana) tourist passes though not wanting to see one.

Ragin' Cajuns and Gators are synonymous but not the least bit confusing.

When it comes to the sidelines, not making a caricature of the moniker Ragin' Cajuns is priority one.

Let the sideline roaming spirit leader and mascot act the fool.

jmo

Really? We can't get people to stop calling us leopards and now we want to put a gator on the sidelines? There are no less than 4 colleges calling themselves Gators. There is only 1 Ragin Cajuns. The window on the gator thing closed decades ago.

Oh, and the Boston Celtics, Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers (there are a lot more) all have a terrible problem with their mascots making them look like buffoons.

I don't disagree that the gator association would have been a good thing for us had we got there first. We did not. It is a massive yawn now. We have a great thing with the Ragin Cajuns, it is unique, fresh, and people want to know about it. Why mess up a good thing?

[Turbine]

Really? We can't get people to stop calling us leopards and now we want to put a gator on the sidelines? There are no less than 4 colleges calling themselves Gators. There is only 1 Ragin Cajuns. The window on the gator thing closed decades ago.

Oh, and the Boston Celtics, Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers (there are a lot more) all have a terrible problem with their mascots making them look like buffoons.

I don't disagree that the gator association would have been a good thing for us had we got there first. We did not. It is a massive yawn now. We have a great thing with the Ragin Cajuns, it is unique, fresh, and people want to know about it. Why mess up a good thing?

There is a "Lafayette Leopards"

There will not be a "Louisiana Gators" or "Lafayette Gators"

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns is here to stay. It represents the entire fan base.

If anything this puts mascots in their proper place. The mascot should never represent the person. Visual logo identifiers are another matter.

No one was ever called a gator for wearing an iZod shirt.

[RedTails]

We don't need a mascot, just get the Cajun Cooking Club cooking on the sidelines and throwing random food to students. I think that captures the essence of a Cajun perfectly.

[AirBill]

What if we did something that honors the courir du Mardi Gras? We could have a Rougarou-looking character dressed up in a courir costume, and another character dressed up like a chicken. In the break between the first and second quarter, you give the chicken a 5-yard headstart, then the rougarou character (named Roux, natch) would chase him and try to catch him. That way we could have a Rougarou character and the return of the Cajun Chicken, and give them something to do that honors the #cULture.

Furthermore, similar to the sausage races at Brewers games, you could have boudin races between the third and fourth quarters. There are lots of ways to do this.

[AirBill]

What if we did something that honors the courir du Mardi Gras? We could have a Rougarou-looking character dressed up in a courir costume, and another character dressed up like a chicken. In the break between the first and second quarter, you give the chicken a 5-yard headstart, then the rougarou character (named Roux, natch) would chase him and try to catch him. That way we could have a Rougarou character and the return of the Cajun Chicken, and give them something to do that honors the #cULture.

Furthermore, similar to the sausage races at Brewers games, you could have boudin races between the third and fourth quarters. There are lots of ways to do this.

Play this song while the chicken chase is happening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCBn9UYqhp4

[JMV JustMyView]

You need serious help.

Trolls will troll. Just have to pray that the guy gets serious help. Just place him on ignore it works wonders.

[CajunVic]

You need serious help.

Only you . . .

[ZoomZoom]

Brought to you by Teet's Food Store in Ville Platte!

Well, we had Bud man, so it would not be the first product placement on a mascot at UL.

Need something like the WKU mascot. Non descriptive yet full of energy.

[Lexhead]

No one was ever called a gator for wearing an iZod shirt.

Actually, that was (is?) quite common in uptown New Orleans, where the preppie, izod wearing gators were the uptown kids and the "y'ats" mostly came from Metairie and the Westbank.

We aren't going to agree on this gator issue. I want to emphasize what a bad idea it is though. It accomplished only what is useful to muddy our brand (see what I did there?), stoke identity confusion, and set us back at a time when we can grow our brand because of weakness across the basin.

[Turbine]

What if we did something that honors the courir du Mardi Gras? We could have a Rougarou-looking character dressed up in a courir costume, and another character dressed up like a chicken. In the break between the first and second quarter, you give the chicken a 5-yard headstart, then the rougarou character (named Roux, natch) would chase him and try to catch him. That way we could have a Rougarou character and the return of the Cajun Chicken, and give them something to do that honors the #cULture.

Furthermore, similar to the sausage races at Brewers games, you could have boudin races between the third and fourth quarters. There are lots of ways to do this.

I grew up here and that concept is foreign to me.

Although I have taken the time to read about its origins at the exact same time Cajuns were fleeing France.

I wouldn't recommend making one day a year culture your identity.

[Turbine]

Actually, that was (is?) quite common in uptown New Orleans, where the preppie, izod wearing gators were the uptown kids and the "y'ats" mostly came from Metairie and the Westbank.

We aren't going to agree on this gator issue. I want to emphasize what a bad idea it is though. It accomplished only what is useful to muddy our brand (see what I did there?), stoke identity confusion, and set us back at a time when we can grow our brand because of weakness across the basin.

That nomenclature is something they desired and hoisted upon themselves.

I said "No one was ever called a gator for wearing an iZod shirt."

[moorecajun]

Obviously those people never saw the Lamer’s green Gumby. That’s the absolute worst in history.

I had forgotten about Gumby!

[HoustonCajun]

There is a "Lafayette Leopards"

There will not be a "Louisiana Gators" or "Lafayette Gators"

Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns is here to stay. It represents the entire fan base.

If anything this puts mascots in their proper place. The mascot should never represent the person. Visual logo identifiers are another matter.

No one was ever called a gator for wearing an iZod shirt.

Some seem to think we are talking about changing Ragin Cajuns to Gators. WRONG. This is like the Alabama Crimson Tide who have an Elephant as a mascot. Or the Tulane Green Wave who have a Pelican as a mascot. The Bull Gator is a mascot not the team moniker. It ties the football stadium "The Swamp" to "The Swamp" on campus where the Bull Gator resides. It is a great university tradition carried over to athletics and tying together both campuses.

We already have a great Red Bull Gator caricature that is perfect and can easily be made into a costume character.

It is the perfect, ready-made mascot sitting right before us. Let's expand the tradition to athletics with "The Swamp" and Bull Gator mascot.