Mascot Monday: It’s a Razorback Menagerie!

Big Red and Sue E.

This week’s edition brings to the SEC and the Arkansas Razorbacks. Many traditions kick up one single, shining emblem that endures and represents the spirit and soul of a university’s athletic prowress. In the case of the University of Arkansas, they kick up like the Rockettes or Michael Flatley’s Riverdance. Today we’re gonna ask, just how many mascots is too many?

Tusk

The University of Arkansas started out as Cardinals up until 1910.  According to their history, in 1909 Coach Bezdek told a train station crowd that their team performed “like a wild band of Razorback hogs” after finishing their season undefeated. The students loved it and they voted it as the official mascot. The University itself did not see an actual mascot until the 1960s, when a live razorback hogs started attending the games and live events. Tusk is the current one, and no it’s not that guy from REO Speedwagon.

Boss Hog

This is where the Razorbacks went their own way in terms of mascot-dom. Usually with a live mascot, you would get a costumed mascot on top. Sometimes, you may get another mascot as well. But in the University of Arkansas’ case, they went full out bore crazy with FOUR more mascots. You have Big Red as the poppa mascot, Sue E. as the female mascot, Pork Chop as the kiddie mascot, and Boss Hog as the ridiculously inflated 9 foot tall mascot. My research didn’t tell what order all of the clan showed up except for Boss Hog in the 1988-89 season.

Now I can maybe understand maybe 3 total mascots, but how big of an inferiority complex does one school have to employ 5 total mascots? And I’m not even including the baseball one, Ribby the Razorback. The Razorbacks have a storied tradition in football. Do they really need that many mascots to meet and greet fans? That’s overkill in my book. Texas would do something like that, not Arkansas.

Boss Hogg as big as Texas

But then again, Arkansas has a great rivalry with Texas. Is that why they feel the need to stack up the sidelines with every type of mascot imaginable? Maybe that ties in with the inferiority complex. Arkansas is small looking next to the huge state of Texas. Five mascots could make the hometown folks burst with a little more pride knowing that their school does something bigger than the the state that likes to do everything big.

Me personally, it doesn’t deliver what everyone shows up to the game wants: a victory. I’m sure it provides more entertainment than some other schools, but it seems more of like a distraction. The set of mascots are impressive, however, as the University of Arkansas fills every type of mascot with every type of politically correct meme. Good luck coming up with more mascots, Razorbacks. Here let me help: Raphael Razorback – the homosexual mascot, Rinkydink the Razorback – the midget mascot, and Rumproast Razorback – the morbidly obese Razorback.  I’m hungry for bacon all of the sudden.