OT? : Pheesa's Home Game

[RockyMTblue2]

It's with St. Louis University. And I went looking for their mascot. Something called a Billiken, which turns out to be distant cousin of the Travelocity Garden Gnome; sorta like a dueling banjos cousin. Wikipedia describes it thus:

"The Billiken is a charm doll created by an American art teacher and illustrator, Florence Pretz of Kansas City, Missouri, who is said to have seen the mysterious figure in a dream.[1] It is believed that Pretz found the name Billiken in Bliss Carman's 1896 poem Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People. In 1908, she obtained a design patent on the ornamental design of the Billiken,[2] which she sold to the Billiken Company of Chicago. The Billiken was elephant-like with pointed ears, a mischievous smile and a tuft of hair on his pointed head. His arms were short and he was generally sitting with his legs stretched out in front of him. Billiken is known as "The God of Things As They Ought to Be."

Well the Billiken was adopted by St. Louis U over 100 years ago and it has gone through a number of iterations over the decades. It got a "modernization" in September 2016 which produced derision and horror, leading to it's replacement in just 4 months.

The University has created a photo gallery of the Billiken over the years. Here it is. Billiken Throughout History

An amusing article on the immediate hullabaloo over September 2016 iteration is here. SLU's New Billiken Mascot Is Still Really Weird

I just want you all to be prepared for this thing prancing out onto the court.

 

[oldude]

Thanks, I learned something today. For some reason, I always thought a billiken was some kind of a large-beaked bird. As we're dealing with unusual college mascots, here's a list of some true oddities:

• Stanford - "Tree"
• "WuShock - Wichita St wheat shock
• "Sammy the Slug" - UC Santa Barbara
• Delta State "Fighting Okra"
• UNC School of Arts "Fighting Pickle"
• "Captain Cane" - Tulsa
• Evergreen St "Geoducks" - it's actually a burrowing clam
• Concordia College - "Kernal Cobb"
• Scottsdale CC - "Artie the Artichoke"

And my favorite

• Rhode Island School of Design - "Scrotie" - yes it is exactly what it sounds like.

 

[donalddoowop]

Hey Rocky, many St. Louis Billikens fans do not know that. He is a funny looking mascot.

 

[tomcat]

Thanks, I learned something today. For some reason, I always thought a billiken was some kind of a large-beaked bird. As we're dealing with unusual college mascots, here's a list of some true oddities:

• Stanford - "Tree"
• "WuShock - Wichita St wheat shock
• "Sammy the Slug" - UC Santa Barbara
• Delta State "Fighting Okra"
• UNC School of Arts "Fighting Pickle"
• "Captain Cane" - Tulsa
• Evergreen St "Geoducks" - it's actually a burrowing clam
• Concordia College - "Kernal Cobb"
• Scottsdale CC - "Artie the Artichoke"

And my favorite

• Rhode Island School of Design - "Scrotie" - yes it is exactly what it sounds like.

No, ther eis a significant difference between a Billiken and a Pelican.

 

[tomcat]

Thanks, I learned something today. For some reason, I always thought a billiken was some kind of a large-beaked bird. As we're dealing with unusual college mascots, here's a list of some true oddities:

• Stanford - "Tree"
• "WuShock - Wichita St wheat shock
• "Sammy the Slug" - UC Santa Barbara
• Delta State "Fighting Okra"
• UNC School of Arts "Fighting Pickle"
• "Captain Cane" - Tulsa
• Evergreen St "Geoducks" - it's actually a burrowing clam
• Concordia College - "Kernal Cobb"
• Scottsdale CC - "Artie the Artichoke"

And my favorite

• Rhode Island School of Design - "Scrotie" - yes it is exactly what it sounds like.

And just for the record, the Geoduck does not sound the way it looks. It's "gooey-duck." Just one of those pieces of trivia that, for whatever reason, is stuck in my brain. And I've been on the campus of the Fighting Artichokes many times. We have (or perhaps had -- I haven't seen him for a while) a BYer whose handle is Fighting 'Choke, with ties to the school.

 

[calpedaler]

UC Santa Cruz's mascot is Sammy the Slug. UC Santa Barbara's mascot is Olé the Gaucho.

 

[Samanthabrown3]

Who thinks of these things???

 

[ChicagoGG]

In St. Louis and Chicago, they have Bud Billiken day parades...or they did when I lived in Chicago.

PS - on edit - the original Billiken Rocky cites looks MUCH more like what I remember that the very strange incarnation the SLU has now...he is meant to be benevolent, not scary.