It’s March Madness and we like to see some of the big time basketball programs represented here on Mascot Monday.  So needless to say, this week’s entry is doing pretty darn well.  What makes it even more interesting is that the football team was considered the worst ever until recently.  The Temple Owls are slowly coming back to prominence in sports.  Their mascot, Hooter T. Owl, flaps along with them at every step.  So sit right back, burn some midnight oil, and stay up late to the hoots and tweets of Hooter T. Owl and Mascot Monday.

Temple University laid claim to its place on the college map around 1884 when Dr. Russell Conwell came to Philadelphia and taught studends in the basement of the Grace Baptist Church.  These students later became known as ‘night owls’ due to their late night study nature.  This is where the history of Hooter T. Owl trips up.  We don’t know when he showed up, but we do know that he hangs out around the sidelines during games.  Apparently Hooter also has a cousin named T-Bird from Owlburquerque but we are going to completely skip over this guy.

So let’s check out Hooter T. Owl.  Hooter stans fairly tall, adorned with feathers of the school’s colors and massive head.  His feet, er, claws show off some grey with big yellow talons.  On the football field, Hooter sports a jersey.  He doesn’t sport shoulder pads or pants.  But that’s okay.  The main attraction for this mascot is his noggin.  The big screaming beak is the first thing one notices.  Right after that, Hooter T. Owl’s fierce looking eyes burns a hole through anyone who dares to cross him.  All in all, this guy is a pretty scary looking bird, especially for one that’s known to be more wise than fighting.

The real lacking part of Hooter T. Owl is his story.  We know the history of the school, but that doesn’t cut it for the history of the mascot.  We know they tried to cook up something wacky with T-Bird, but the main attraction to their mascot menagarie needs to have better back story.  Temple could do something as simple as suggesting Hooter T. Owl made a nest at the the top of the church and started showing up to the games to cheer on the home team.  It’s not that hard to make something up for mascots.  Just make it cute and easy to swallow.

Hooter T. Owl is a pretty cool mascot.  The look is pretty sharp, almost as sharp as his talons.  The only thing that’s lacking is the story.  Sure, Hooter’s hip to the latest in technology, even sporting his own Twitter account, but to make it to the big time for mascots, we need to have an endearing backstory for cheer Hooter on as he cheers us on. Outside of that, we would be proud to watch Hooter perch himself on our sideline and glare at the other side,  hooting and tweeting along the way.