What the heck?

Luke Von Arx looks at the least intimidating college mascots that will greet the 2017 M.A. graduates

1. Saint Louis University Billikens

A Billiken is a charm doll created by an American art teacher who says that he saw it in a dream. On the campus of SLU the Billikens is known as a good luck charm.

Senior Sophie Willman will be the only senior attending Saint Louis from Minnehaha next year. When she was asked about Saint Louis’s nickname she said, “The mascot is actually super creepy, but it is also cool that no other school in the country has the same nickname.”

2. Tulane Green Waves

During the 1920 football season there was a song written for the football team called “The Rolling Green Wave” which really made no sense with their nickname at the time, which was Olive and Blue. Once this song was written the nickname stuck and they’ve been the Tulane Green Waves ever since.

Abigail Gillmer will be the only one attending Tulane from Minnehaha in the fall. “I’m not sure why Tulane chose the Green Wave,” she said, “but I like it, so Roll Wave!”

3. Luther College Norse

The ‘norse’ refers to the region the founders of the school came from and they were called “Norsemen”.

The one person from Minnehaha going to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, is Steven Johnson. “I think it’s cool that the nickname had a lot of history behind it,” he said, “but it isn’t the coolest or the most intimidating nickname around.”

4. Minnesota Golden Gophers

In 1858, the year Minnesota became a state, Minnesota got the nickname the Gopher state. In about 1930 they decided to use the nickname Golden Gophers because an announcer called them that because they had all gold jerseys and the nickname stuck. Many seniors will be going there next year, including James Wong.

“I’ve never actually seen a gopher in Minnesota before,” Wong said, “so it doesn’t really make sense, but I do like it for our mascot.”