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Message: [QUOTE="RockyMTblue2, post: 2689190, member: 250"] 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 [B]Billiken[/B] is a charm doll created by an American art teacher and illustrator, Florence Pretz of [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City,_Missouri']Kansas City, Missouri[/URL], who is said to have seen the mysterious figure in a dream.[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiken#cite_note-Lore-1'][1][/URL] It is believed that Pretz found the name Billiken in [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_Carman']Bliss Carman[/URL]'s 1896 poem [I]Mr. Moon: A Song Of The Little People[/I]. In 1908, she obtained a [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_patent']design patent[/URL] on the ornamental design of the Billiken,[URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiken#cite_note-2'][2][/URL] 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. [URL="http://www.slubillikens.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=27200&PALBID=1968059"]Billiken Throughout History[/URL] An amusing article on the immediate hullabaloo over September 2016 iteration is here. [URL="https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2016/09/21/slus-new-billiken-mascot-still-really-weird"]SLU's New Billiken Mascot Is Still Really Weird[/URL] I just want you all to be prepared for this thing prancing out onto the court. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach