I like colors as team names. Stanford Cardinal. University of Chicago Maroons. Nice. But this does defer the mascot question, doesn't it? Stanford has that goofy tree, and Chicago has a Nobel Laureate or something like that.

Marquette is now part of the answer to a great sports trivia question: Name the professional and college sports teams that don't send in "s" (e.g., Dallas Cowboys) or "n" (e.g., Syracuse Orangemen).

AHEM, there is nothing "goofy" about The Tree being the mascot for the Stanford Cardinal (no, "Cardinal" is not the bird in this context -- it's the color Cardinal (a deep red), like the Marquette Gold).

The Tree is by far the most creative mascot in academia, because (a) it's not just another dancing mammal (it's not even in the animal kingdom!) who looks like he should be paid $3/hr to mill around a theme park, and (b) every year it's a different tree -- a palm tree one year, a pine tree the next, or something more off-kilter like "disco tree" (which I confess didn't make any sense to me at the time).

In conclusion, don't dis the tree.

Some pictures of the Stanford Tree, in case Marquette needs any ideas:

http://gostanford.collegesports.com/genrel//021904aac.html?page=1

"Marquette is now part of the answer to a great sports trivia question: Name the professional and college sports teams that don't send in "s" (e.g., Dallas Cowboys) or "n" (e.g., Syracuse Orangemen)."

Actually, you could now add Syracuse to that list, because their athletic teams are now simply known as the "Orange."

I'm annoyed at the lack of creativity here. There is a large segment of students, alumni, and just plain old members of the community, that have been wanting the Warrior name back, and while I'm somewhat sympathetic to concerns about offending Native Americans, a Warrior does not need to be Native American. (Side Note: While I find "Redskins" to be highly offensive, and the logos of the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves to be offesnive, isn't being a warrior generally considered to be a good thing?)

Why didn't they simply change the logo to a knight, or a viking, or a spartan/trojan warrior, and keep the warrior name?

At least a Golden Eagle is a somewhat fierce mascot. The vague concept of "Gold" is not a good mascot. It inspires nothing.

The Maroons of Chicago are represented by a phoenix, incidentally (although admittedly a Nobel Laureate would be more appropriate), and Syracuse is now just the "Orange." They dropped the "men" from their name out of fear of offending sunburned people. Or something. I didn't really understand that name change, actually.

And the tree is goofy, by the way.

I guess I have to defer to the judgment as to "goofiness" of a 27 year-old lawyer who blogs about beer pong!

Ah, I see Jimbo already covered the "Orange" thing. My mistake.

I do give Stanford credit for creativity. Who else would think of a tree? And it is representative of the area.

It makes more sense to me than the Crimson Tide and their elephant. I will definitely be interested to see what Marquette does for a mascot now.

I live in Palo Alto ("tall tree," essentially) and can understand the whole tree mascot thing for our local university. I appreciate the correction about the Orange of Syracuse.

The real problem, of course, is the Georgetown Hoya, which, as I understand it, is a Greek demonstrative pronoun from a tongue in cheek football cheer "hoya saxa," which is hilariously funny, of course, because it mixes Greek and Roman words (you had to be there, and be a classics student, back whenever they dreamed that one up).

Scott, I think the tree is the perfect mascot. It inspires loyalty from Stanford people and derision from those outside. What more could you ask from a mascot than to create passionate conflict between the opposing teams' fans?

Paul, the Crimson Tide and the elephant ... I just googled and found this history: "So why does a red elephant prance up and down the Tide sidelines, revving up the Tuscaloosa faithful on game day? Well, no one can really say for sure. School historians verify that the red elephants have been associated with 'Bama football since 1930, however, theories on the tradition's origin have varied over the years." Is that only a mascot for football?

John, that reminds me of one of my favorite sports experiences. While I was in college, in Patrick Ewing's freshman year, the Hoyas played the NCAA regionals at BYU. I had nosebleed tickets for the game, so I decided to scout courtside for something more congenial. As luck would have it, I found an empty seat on the aisle ... next to the percussionist for the Georgetown band. He invited me to occupy the seat on the condition that I play an instrument (I chose the tamborine). It was great fun, and at one point I asked the natural question, "What's a Hoya?" To which the percussionist answered, "Exactly!" If this doesn't make sense, check this out.