• eastbayaggie
    95
    https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/UC-Davis-mustang-mascot-replaced-17179946.php

    Someone mentioned this earlier in a women's basketball thread, and I said I didn't know why they didn't implement this in this early nineties when we voted for the cow then. Now I know why.

    "While Davis Enterprise reported that students voted to oust Gunrock the Mustang in 1993, the Cow4Mascot campaign says that the school administration and then-Chancellor Theodore L. Hullar rejected their decision."
  • Jackbacker2
    25
    The undergrads for the last 10 years or so have[ b]LOVED[/b] the cow. The times I have been on campus the cows at the dairy barn are the #1 attraction and photo op.
    I remember long ago when the Stanford undergrads voted to change the mascot from the Indians to the Robber Barons. I thought that was a bold and accurate statement of their past.
    Horses have passed away from the public's eye. I like cows, better than a stallion named Gunrock.
  • BlueGoldAg
    1.1k
    So will we have Bossy Cow Cow Lager now instead of Gunrock Lager...?
  • Russ Bowlus
    330
    Or Sudwerk can do a cross promotion with Sandra Boynton: Moo, Baa, La La Lager. :D
  • AggieFinn2
    88
    I think this is all pretty stupid. That said I think the Gunrock mascot is pretty stupid-looking (although a horse mascot is always going to look stupid pretty much.

    If they wanted a truly inclusive mascot they should introduce a "Bill". Everyone has bills. Everyone can relate.

    As my old man would say if I brought up this topic while in school-"How are your grades ? Getting all A's I hope ?"
  • eastbayaggie
    95
    Here's the instagram link: https://instagram.com/cow4mascot?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

    After reading some other articles, my favorite cow name is Hugh Heffer.
  • Russ Bowlus
    330
    Heifers are female. :p
  • MTBAggie
    90
    Man, I saw this news today and do not like the change to a cow.
    I always thought the story behind Gunrock was really interesting. gge3fpfar56gwl21.jpg
  • 72Aggie
    300
    While wasting my time looking up Aggie and bovine nicknames and mascots I learned that in 1907 the student body at Williams College voted to have the school's mascot be a purple cow. The teams are called the "Ephs," after college founder Ephraim Williams. Hard to visualize an "Eph."

    And the mascot of the Texas A&M Aggies is a collie dog. The Utah State Aggies mascot is a generic bovine that looks like a longhorn.

    We are from a University system with Anteaters and Banana Slugs.
  • 69aggie
    370
    And an Argentine cowboy? Was Santa Barbara once owned by Argentina? Gouchos. What a joke. Now vaqueros might actually work. But I guess a Mexican cowboy doesn’t have the panache of an Argentine one. But that’s Santa Barbara for you.
    Question: does the administration have to accept this vote?
  • AggieFinn2
    88
    Be careful. Heifers can be whatever gender they want or no gender at all. In fact Hugh could be a bull that identifies as a heifer. Seems like UCD missed the Banana Slug opportunity, which was way ahead of its time
  • movielover
    484
    You're suggesting Gunrock identifies as a cow?
  • AggieFinn2
    88
    Does UCSF have a mascot ? Maybe the aspiring doctors could put together a softball team with a duck mascot. The UCSF Quacks.
  • AggieFinn2
    88
    They can if they want.
  • AggieFinn2
    88
    It's more likely they just took a bunch of common mascot names and put it to a vote. I don't imagine there are too many mafia bosses or wealthy Spanish lords in San Francisco.
  • 72Aggie
    300
    I thought I'd read some years ago that UCSF had a few club teams that would play other schools, but I cannot find anything to confirm that. Funny about my memory, eh?

    Probably aren't a lot of Gators in the City either, Golden or otherwise....but we sheepishly need to acknowledge the Urban Knights of the Academy of Art.
  • fugawe09
    171
    This is a circular issue. 12% voter turnout is considered “well above normal”. Because ASUCD types waste their oxygen on nonsense like this or debating the finer points of BDS in regards to hypothetical assets they don’t have. People don’t vote because the proposals are nutty, but it leaves just enough space for the nutty crowd to push their agenda as if they have some sort of majority mandate.
  • BaseballAtDobbins
    42
    I miss the old Gunrock costume. I hate the new Gunrock.

    Also how did the fee referendum do?
  • Jackbacker2
    25
    Here are the results from the Aggie.

    The “Eliminate the Portion of CEI [Campus Expansion Initiative] Fee that makes Undergraduates Pay Over $200 to Fund ICA Athletic Scholarships” measure failed to meet the necessary 20% voter threshold required for fee referenda to pass with 78.46% of voters in favor.

    The “Eliminate the Portion of the SASI [Student Activities and Services Initiative] Fee that makes Undergraduates Pay Over $300 to fund ICA Operating Expenses” measure also failed to meet the necessary 20% voter threshold with 79.12% of voters in favor.

    Finally, the Consideration of changing the UC Davis mascot from the mustang to a cow passed with 73.01% of the vote and is now subject to administrative review.


    Both sides are claiming victory. Cutting PE was a STUPID act by the school and may come back to hurt ICA. It hurts the general students not to have access to PE classes that can help them. Now campus rec charges for everything with instruction and the ARC is very crowded in general. It will be interesting to see if the students move on these numbers for next year.
  • 69aggie
    370
    I see 72s entrande. In this vote To exclude the many other animals on the campus is an outrage! Why not the sheep? Goats? Army has a goat. A cow is an intact female animal. Gunrock was an intact male animal. To be fair we need a non-binary “thing” so Stanford actually got it right with the tree. I think Menlo college are the oaks. So come on guys, let’s come up with something else besides the horse cow thing. OK, cal are the bears. Which kind? UCLA same?
  • movielover
    484
    Butter churners?

    "Other names for the dash are dasher-staff, churn-staff, churning-stick, plunger, plumper, or kirn-staff."
  • zythe
    102
    This is so stupid.

    Please don’t change the mascot. Cows were such a small part of the campus. At this point we should be the vineyard, ducks, etc. Anything but a cow!
  • AggieFinn2
    88
    In San Francisco State's case the mascot was just born out of a pun and what likely was an homage to a famous city landmark. Pretty clever.

    Golden Gate(rs)-Golden Gators.
  • AggieFinn2
    88
    One thing I know everybody already knows but I am emphasising is that regardless of what the students do UC Davis would still be the Aggies. All they are potentially changing is the mascot that shows up at the games that they mostly don't attend and that gets printed on merchandise the university sells. And even then doesn't the university have the final say ? It's the university's money.

    An Aggie is a farmer, right ? Despite the strong link between horses and agriculture some people want an even more obvious one.

    What if the mascot were a farmer ? There are lots of stupid-looking matador and gaucho mascots across the country, why not a farmer ?

    And to make it a more inclusive choice it could be a FEMALE farmer. Not a non-binary farmer, not a transgender farmer, a female farmer. You could sell it as paying tribute to the contributions of women in agriculture.

    Here's the thing that gets lost in the PC garbage-world we live in today. It isn't a crime to identify as a man or a woman. No one is protesting that people have gender. If I may be so blunt at the end of the day the babies get made somehow and there has to be some identification of who has what human reproductive parts at least. They are protesting that people who don't or who do not identify with their birth-assigned gender face discrimination from others and through government institutions intended to serve everyone.

    A mascot is a piddly little thing. However, the ridiculous idealists out there have decided that rhetorically defending others by insisting on inclusion in every little thing. Removing gender references is also discrimination in a sense. And really, who are these people who insist an animal mascot can't be male or female ? Can they be removed from society so that know what real discrimination feels like ? Ridiculous.
  • 72Aggie
    300
    I really don't have a horse, or cow, in this race. Either is fine.

    One example of a human agrarian-type mascot would be Herbie Husker at Nebraska...though even Herbie had PC/woke issues recently and his hand signal had to be changed.

    The New Mexico State Aggies have a person of sorts, but he looks more like a gunslinger. Isn't brandishing a six-shooter kind of the antithesis of farming?

    I googled "cow meaning." That will offend someone soon. As a verb it means bullying. In the UK it is a particularly derisive term for an ill spirited woman. One definition even had person with a large a** and I don't think they were referring to a farmyard animal.

    AggieFinn2 - I was aware of the use of Gator as a play on the Golden Gate. Not sure the opening to a large natural bay/harbor, or the bridge that spans it, is much of an inspiring mascot either but you don't want to name your teams after Coit Tower either.

    Still better than the Boll Weevils of Arkansas-Monticello. Who names their teams after a pest? And while Delta State's teams are called the Statesmen, (or the somewhat oxymoronic Lady Statemen) they are more colloquially called Fighting Okra. A team named after soul food?

    Perhaps we could follow the culinary theme, and in honor of our renowned viticulture and enology program call our teams the Fighting Gamay Beaujolais.

    Or have another student referendum to select a varietal.
  • movielover
    484
    Given the direction we're headed, how about Vaca (Spanish for cow), and we could adopt Vacaville.
  • agalum
    294
    Current students are not the only stake holders in this vote. Where was the alumni association during this process? When you start counting the contributions that alumni make, they (we) likely are the principles. Can you imagine the uproar from USC alumni if the students changed the mascot to the condoms?
  • 69aggie
    370
    Good post agalum. One grandstanding student should not be the driving force of a long standing tradition. 12% of current students overturning many, many years of a mascot. OK so I want a goat to be our mascot? Make a big bunch of noise. Rally 12% of the students for a vote. Goats are great. Goats have may attributes. Easier to handle that cows. Give milk. What else can you possibly want in a mascot? So we just switch mascots from year to year.
    ? Ridiculous!
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