Could a guy in a giant wolverine suit be coming to the University of Michigan sidelines soon?
This could very well be the case according to the Detroit News and the schools official website.
“We’re interested in doing a mascot, but it has to be something that fans love, that children love and everyone can embrace,” athletic director David Brandon told Michigan Today. “So far, we haven’t figured out a way to do it. Until we come up with something we love, we don’t have a mascot.”
Like most other mascots in college sports, the reasoning behind a potential U-M mascot is marketing. The University see’s the amount of money their Big Ten counterparts make on their mascots and Michigan would surly like to explore the possibilities of employing a full time mascot.
“I’m struck by the fact that when opposing teams come to our stadium, and they bring a mascot, all of our young fans are lined up to see if they can get a picture taken with it, whether it’s the Penn State Nittany Lion or Sparty,” Brandon told Michigan Today. “That’s a little annoying to me.
“You can’t get your picture taken with the Block M. Mascots are really embraced by the youth demographic and we want to take advantage of that.”
Many traditionalist have already scoffed at the idea of Michigan employing a mascot. However this wouldn’t be the first time that the University used a mascot at their sporting events. The school used two real life Wolverines (Bennie and Biff) in the 1920’s. This however was short lived because the Wolverines got too big and too feroucious to be kept at the sporting events. They also used a mascot called Willy the Wolverine during the 1980’s. This too did not last long and was eventually scrapped.
Now I know that tradition is something that is taken very seriously at Michigan and for good reason. Traditionalist believe that the addition of a mascot will somehow impede on that tradition, even though it’s something the University did use in the past. The fact is David Brandon isn’t talking about changing the schools colors or changing the jerseys or helmets for that matter, he is simply mulling over the idea of adding a marketing tool that can appeal to an even broader fan base and expand the Michigan brand.
Now I’m not painting all Michigan fans with such a broad brush but sometimes being overly traditional can give of an annoying elitist feel.
Source: Detroit News, MGoBlue.com