Reading the public comments there has never been an issue that divides the UL community more than this albino alligator. It needs to just die now.
I guess you have no faith in the poll that has almost an 80% approval rate. Usually the objectors are the loudest. As a betting man, I would suggest that the lion’s share of the objectors you speak of and see on social media have also logged votes in the 41 currently voting no in the poll. I suggest that 41 out of this fan base is not a house divided.
No it’s not. The nickname for people from the area is Cajuns. Ragin flows with it and fits with the concept of an athletic nickname. Not weird at all, very creative and appropriate.
Naming your mascot after a genetic condition is weird. No matter that you spell it with a regional twist.
I would support a more typical green gator mascot (similar to the ones in Cypress Lake) with a red jersey.
It was considered weird in the mid 1960's
It was like the Greek lady at the checkout counter when the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" came out. She told my wife in a heavy accent, "Greeks are not fat."
Native Cajuns could not grasp that they were "Ragin"
It didn't matter, students and sports fans could.
Current KLFY, KTDY, and Facebook reactions are no different than "Greeks are not fat"
They don't get it, Louisiana needs a gator mascot.
And for the shaking boots crowd, "Ragin' Cajuns" ain't going anywhere. Here to stay.
If you want to move up to the next level we need to move forward with the gator mascot.
Look at any major university in a state. A animal or thing is connected with that state except for a few. This is a few that are
Examples: Longhorns, Gamecocks, Razorbacks, Wolverines, Buckeyes, Tar Heels, Cornhuskers, Seminoles, Rebels, Lobos, Hoosiers etc.
In this thinking we have Ragin Cajuns which may connect us to this region but does not connect us to the rest of the state like a gator mascot.
We do not have the luxury like LSU, Clemson, Georgia, Missouri etc. we have to have something else that connects with the rest of the state.
The main thing for fans they want to be connected to the University in some way.
Us trying to connect the rest of Louisiana to this University is the way we need to market moving forward.
There is no animal, or thing like a gator that the rest of the country thinks about when they hear Louisiana. Crawfish maybe is associated with it.
I promise you they think Gator when they hear Louisiana. It’s not a Bulldog, or catahoula hound dog, etc .
No one is trying to change the nickname. Nickname is the nickname it will and forever be Ragin Cajuns .
If Al the alligator became more popular then Ragin Cajuns we are going straight to the top !!
We are like the next Michigan, or LSU getting 100k a game.
If that is the case we have reached the pinnacle of college football.
I learned this truth in 1966 when I was 6.
I had never thought much about it but when my cousins came down from Nebraska, all they could talk about was wanting to see alligators. "Louisiana"
When I would go visit every summer, invariably alligators would come up at some point. "Louisiana"
No but they have the Wolverine claw stripe on their helmets. A visual marker. They also have some claw logos.
I haven't seen, anyone including Corey present a physical mascot yet, but he has come up with a really cool visual marker (and no that does not mean it needs to go on the helmet)
He is doing this in stages.
Right now its, about connecting what has always been "alligators on campus" with the imagination of what can be.
Not necessarily about the mascot but how a wolverine is connected with the state of Michigan. It is technically called the Wolverine state.
https://absolutemichigan.com/michiga.lverine-state/
Now Louisiana is not called the Gator state, but it is associated with Louisiana whether it is called that or not.
We are the Pelican state but Gator works better to me then a Pelican when associating it with Louisiana.
Also Tulane a long time ago was the Tulane University of Louisiana. Which is probably part of the reason a Pelican works perfect as there mascot.
Now I am not advocating a Pelican be our mascot that is taken but a gator works better with South Louisiana and Louisiana. Also a pelican is associated with The Green Wave.
Former name of Tulane
University of Louisiana (1847–1884)
Trivia .
1) Louisiana Pelicans are all decendands of Pelicans imported from Florida.
2) Florida albino alligators are all decendands of alligators imported from Louisiana.
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