The Boll Weevil Revisited

Just a quick word regarding one of the GSC mascots I mentioned a post or so back…last week (before the SEAC Conference) I was in Monticello giving an archeology talk when I visited the bookstore.

The bookstore carried bumper stickers that not only sported the big green boll weevil (see mascot costume to the right), but also the fantastic phrase:
“Ain’t Nuthin’ More Evil Than a Damned Boll Weevil.”

I bought 4.

Later I learned from a UAM Station Staff member that the current UAM President is trying to get rid of this saying….that’s a shame.

I wonder if it is the profanity or the suggestion that his school may be “evil” that had lead to the change of heart?

On a side note…the UAM girls teams do not use the Boll Weevil mascot…they are called the “Cotton Blossoms.” First, its not like boll weevils are gender specific (like the ATU “Wonder Boys”)…so why not the “Lady Weevils”? It makes as much sense as the “Lady ‘Backs”? Second, I find the cotton blossoms mascot oddly disturbing…I mean, think about what it is that boll weevils do to cotton blossoms.

Odd Mascots and the GSC Conference

Tonight I watched the Southern Arkansas vs. Arkansas Tech game (after “mulegating” by the Welcome Center)….My first SAU football game. It was a close game, with the momentum swinging back and forth several times during the game…But, alas, SAU lost 36-29 in the last minutes of the final quarter.

As I watched the “Muleriders” take on the Arkansas Tech “Wonder Boys,” It occurred to me that the Gulf South Conference (GSC) is full of interesting mascots…

Of the original 1909 Arkansas schools we have the Southern Arkansas Muleriders, Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys, the University of Arkansas at Monticello Boll Weevils and Arkansas State Indians…O.K. Indians may be a liability politically, but it is not really an unusual mascot…maybe that’s why they have moved on to the Sunbelt Conference.

But back here in the GSC we also have the Henderson State “Reddies” (roughly “meaning those who wear red”)…I doubt that this mascot name is a reference to communist sympathies…but I wonder if anybody would get it if I started calling them the “HSU Pinkos.”

Go Muleriders!

If you haven’t yet heard through the grapevine, I have accepted a position…really two positions in one. I will be an Assistant Professor at Southern Arkansas University and the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Research Station Archeologist in Magnolia, Arkansas.

When I was doing my “homework” before going to the interview at SAU, I found out that the university mascot was a mulerider! This, of course, peaked my curiosity. What exactly was this mascot referring to and how did it become the symbol of SAU?

Thankfully, the SAU website was nice enough to provide some answers (yeah…I love to get into institutional histories wherever I go).

Southern Arkansas University started out as the Third District Agricultural School (TDAS) and was founded in 1909 “to educate rural youth of the region and to promote better agriculture practices”…Also referred to as “Magnolia A&M,” they were known originally as “Aggies” (Thank God, for the change….I think they’d revoke my membership to the Texas Exes if I became an Aggie).

But Magnolia was not at a railhead and (at least on a few occasions) the players rode the livestock to the railroad in order to ride to games with other schools (it WAS, after all, an agricultural school). Thus, the team was proclaimed “the Muleriders.” The mascot was officially adopted in the 1920s.

A mascot with a class chip on its shoulder…turning what could be a mark of shame into a badge of honor….Now, that’s my kinda mascot!

Tags: mascot, history

Go Muleriders!

If you haven’t yet heard through the grapevine, I have accepted a position…really two positions in one. I will be an Assistant Professor at Southern Arkansas University and the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Research Station Archeologist in Magnolia, Arkansas.

When I was doing my “homework” before going to the interview at SAU, I found out that the university mascot was a mulerider! This, of course, peaked my curiosity. What exactly was this mascot referring to and how did it become the symbol of SAU?

Thankfully, the SAU website was nice enough to provide some answers (yeah…I love to get into institutional histories wherever I go).

Southern Arkansas University started out as the Third District Agricultural School (TDAS) and was founded in 1909 “to educate rural youth of the region and to promote better agriculture practices”…Also referred to as “Magnolia A&M,” they were known originally as “Aggies” (Thank God, for the change….I think they’d revoke my membership to the Texas Exes if I became an Aggie).

But Magnolia was not at a railhead and (at least on a few occasions) the players rode the livestock to the railroad in order to ride to games with other schools (it WAS, after all, an agricultural school). Thus, the team was proclaimed “the Muleriders.” The mascot was officially adopted in the 1920s.

A mascot with a class chip on its shoulder…turning what could be a mark of shame into a badge of honor….

Now, that’s my kinda mascot!

Tags: mascot, history