Live Mascot for the Tide?

by Todd on Nov 12, 2007 9:06 PM CST in Football

Via SI on Campus, there is apparently an effort by the SGA to bring a live elephant to campus:

During a joint session between the First Year Council and the SGA Senate, the two bodies passed a resolution that will research bringing a live elephant to campus during football games to add school spirit.

The resolution cited other SEC schools, such as Auburn, Tennessee and LSU that bring an animal to campus for home football games.

The decision was only to create a group to research the idea, but that stirred debate between First Year Council members and SGA senators. Arguments ranged from logistics to animal rights before the resolution was affirmed.

"You can't just throw an elephant in the middle of the Quad. It has to be thought through," said Christy Adamson, a freshman majoring in international business.

This should end well.

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I have no clue...

...as to how you stumbled across that You Tube clip, but that may well be the first time I've so much as chuckled since Saturday afternoon.

The most beautiful phrase in the English language: "Touchdown, Alabama!"

by turnover on Nov 12, 2007 9:20 PM CST reply actions

Well...

If this does come to fruition, and you can officially list me as opposing this idea, I suppose we'll have a mascot that opposing teams truly fear. Some people talk about how their mascot supposedly scares opponents, but a live adult elephant would, because there would be a pretty good possibility that he would get pissed off and trample a few people to death.

I don't really see how you could incorporate him into the gameday experience at or near the stadium, though. He'd destroy the playing surface if you took him out there, and he'd probably shit all everything. According to Wiki, elephants produce about 300 pounds of shit per day, just so you know all of you live mascot supporters.

And I have to be honest, LSU spent 3 million dollars for a cage for Mike, and a habitat for Al would likely cost much more and take up much more space. I really don't see where we need to be spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 million dollars on a house for a live mascot.

Call me a miser if you wish, but I think it's a valid point.

by outsidethesidelines on Nov 12, 2007 9:22 PM CST reply actions

I agree.

I have thought about this before, mostly of the idiocracy of the idea. Seriously, an 800lb tiger is one thing, but a 2 ton elephant? We have had enough bad press the past ten years, don't need a headline reading something like the UA Mascot goes crazy: 20 people killed and 35 in critical care. Elephant was gunned down on University Quad right outside the main library; elementary school students on field trip horrified, counselers called in to deal with upset 8 year olds. Yea us!

"FAILURE" - When your best just isn't good enough

by BamaReturns07 on Nov 13, 2007 8:39 AM CST up reply actions

All I want to know is...

Can it play right tackle? We've only got one elephant on the O line, and we sure could use one or two more!

by SugarBowl93 on Nov 12, 2007 9:52 PM CST reply actions

some ideas just suck

this story was in the cw a few days ago

elephants are one of the strongest, but most easily startled animals there is. can you imagine the damage that would happen if we scared the poor thing if it was actually in bds.

someone wrote a letter to the editor saying that the elephant is our mascot because it is strong, majestic and intelligent and a caged animal is none of those things.

Cause bama's pluck and gritt has writ her name in crimson flame.

by pluckandgritt on Nov 13, 2007 1:18 AM CST reply actions

school spirit

Does Bama really need to add school spirit?

by hailstate on Nov 13, 2007 1:00 PM CST reply actions

Good point

Considering we easily fill a 92,000 seat stadium even against the East Popcorn States of the world -- and have a ticket waiting list consisting of thousands of people -- I don't think we need to be too concerned with raising school spirit.

Seems we have plenty of school spirit.

And let's just say a habitat for this thing would cost 10 million bucks, which I figure would be a reasonable estimate. Hell, the expansion for the South end zone would probably only be 40-50 million bucks. With the money we'd spent on this thing a glorified cage we could pay for 20-25% of the expansion.

by outsidethesidelines on Nov 13, 2007 1:20 PM CST up reply actions

I'm not really pro or con elephant, but..

I think that if the administration decided to get the elephant AND the expansion tomorrow, they could afford it with millions to spare. Money ain't really the problem...

by SugarBowl93 on Nov 13, 2007 1:25 PM CST up reply actions

True...

I think you are right, money is never going to be a problem with Alabama football, but it's just the point of the matter.

I know that getting the money for either wouldn't be a problem, but the point remains that it would still be ten million dollars less that we would have, and that's ten million dollars that we could have spent on something with much more marginal utility than an elephant's cage.

And just being honest, there are a few things around that we could spend that money on it that actually need it. The Bryant Museum needs a make-over -- those TV's they have in there look like they are straight from 1993 -- and some of the smaller revenue sports could use it. Generally I'm not a supporter of spending money on the non-revenue sports, but I'd rather spend it on baseball than for an elephant.

We could build a brand new baseball stadium -- or at least pay for a massive chunk of it -- for what it would take to acquire, maintain, and construct a habitat for an elephant.

by outsidethesidelines on Nov 13, 2007 5:21 PM CST up reply actions