This week we are going to look at the very opposite sides of mascotdom, all from one school.  We like to point out either how fierce a mascot can look versus how cartoony a mascot can look.  Both have its plusses and both have its minuses.  But what if you’re a school that wants to cover all of the bases when it comes to mascots?  Well, you do what Xavier did and have a mascot to fill each role.  Let’s take a trip down to Cincinnati, Ohio and check out Xavier’s  D’Artagnan and the Blue Blob.

Xavier came into existence around 1831 and is the first Catholic institution of higher learning.   Reverend Francis J. Finn, S.J., In response to a directive from the Board of Trustees,  proposed the name Musketeers in 1925.  We couldn’t find much on when D’Artagnan first showed up but we are well aware that he is the extension of Musketeer name.  The Blue Blob, however, showed up in late 1980s when the assistant to the director of sports services, Sally Watson, wanted to have a kid friendly counterpart to D’Artagnan.  Ever since, both mascots tumble through the sidelines to cheer on the teams both old and young alike.

So let’s go over D’Artagnan.  The scary side of the mascot dynamic duo has a big, soft head complete with some frisky facial features.  The classic Musketeer hat with a feather tucked into tops the large noggin’.  The rest of the costume resembles a more human form and rounds out what a French swashbuckler should look like.  We don’t see any swords but that’s probably because he hasn’t had to use it, yet.  All in all, he stands tall but isn’t as scary as some of the animal standing mascots.  Still, D’Artagnan can whoop up on the lot of human mascots by the sword alone.

The Blue Blob is most literal representation of a mascot we have seen to date.  From the images shown, we can tell that yes, he is blue and he is a blob.  The rumor was that Sesame Street’s very own Cookie Monster was inspiration for this guy and we can totally see it.  There’s your instant relation with the kids.  Why not take a popular kids television character and have him root your team on?  Now, we don’t know if it’s the same kind of deal like what Oregon has with the Duck and Disney’s Donald Duck, but we assume that any legal hurdles are cleared.  We’re sure the kids love this guy but we like Western Kentucky’s Big Red counterpart better.

So we have a decent mascot on the scary side of things and we have a decent mascot on the cartoony side of things.  Alone, they are not good.  Put them together and you have a tasty one-two combination of mascot power.  Sometimes a university can only reinvent the current mascot so many times.   Sometimes you need to bring in a whole new character.  The Xavier Musketeers did so and did a great job of it, too.  Now we are hungry for some cookies and 3 Musketeers candy bars for some strange reason.