Tag: Goldy Gopher

A teenager’s ranking of the Big Ten mascots

My 15 year old son and I sat down and he ranked the Big Ten mascots from worst to first.

Everyone who spends their entire life a die-hard sports fan tends to fall in love with something different about the game. Whether you like the athleticism, the competition, the entertainment, or the comradery – you always hold something dear from your time with your teams. One thing my family has always loved,…are mascots.

The silent entertainer, providing joy to fans both young and old in suits portraying a team’s namesake or a fantasy character to entertain the masses in attendance. They capture the hearts of children and garner laughs from the adults, all while not saying a word. The rodeo clowns of major sports, mascots are there to bring us joy (and sell a few stuffed animals) regardless of how well our favorite teams are performing. Growing up in Philadelphia, I had two of the best mascots of all time in my city.

My son wasn’t always a huge sports fan. As he’s gotten older, he’s joined Dad to watch more and more sports and as a Philadelphian himself, he too is an expert on mascots. I read a fun piece from our friend Evan Bredeson from our crew over at Cornhuskers Wire and decided to ask the same question. This time, to a 15-year old.

Here’s my son’s rankings of the Big Ten mascots:

[mm-video type=playlist id=01fc3gzhz7qrm49z6q player_id=none image=https://rutgerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

Getting help ranking the Big Ten mascots

I went to the only person who could help with something like this!

I’ve never really cared about mascots. I was always more interested in what was taking place on the field than the guy in a knockoff Disney World costume telling me to get fired up for the defense or doing pushups after every score. I’m trying to watch a football game. Could you please stop trying to distract me? I don’t want to have to focus on two things at once, so I simply never paid attention as a result.

So when I decided to rank the Big Ten mascots, I knew I needed help. There’s only one person I could turn to, and that person… is my wife. She’s never seen or heard of most of the mascots, so these rankings are her initial impressions. One thing is clear, college football fans place a lot of emphasis on tradition when it comes to our mascots because, without that knowledge or understanding of that tradition, we get a very different list.

Buckle up Big Ten fans. Things are about to get interesting.