Live animals, Willy the Wolverine, Rich Eisen, Groupon, and DB's mascot hopes

...Michigan is a bastion of intellect.  Wolverines are extremely vicious and unpredictable.  Football games are played in public places with over 100,000 people there.  It doesn't take a PhD in math to add it all up and figure out why Michigan doesn't have a live mascot on the sidelines.

Even if they found a cage that was heavy-duty enough to be foolproof, imagine the clusterfuck that the PETA demonstrations outside of the stadium would cause.  

David Brandon:

You can't get your picture taken with a Block M. Mascots are really embraced by the youth demographic and we want to take advantage of that, for all the reasons that are obvious.

I disagree. Take a picture in front of this (I did):

Interesting read.  Always wondered why there wasn't a mascot, though I do prefer not having one.  Thanks for sharing!

No mascot please.  Do children these days really need/want/appreciate/take pictures with visiting (or any) mascots?!  Why don't they identify with Denard/Brady Hoke/the ghosts of Bo/Crisler/Yost/Ufer/etc.?  Identify with the "Spirit of Michigan" as Ufer called it, not with some felt creation with a horrible name. 

I guess that's just life passing me by.  Out with the old, in with the new, it's "pro"gress.

when I really wish we had a mascot.

That wolf abomination in the article just pushes me farther into the no mascot camp. Live Wolverines will never work, if they had trotted Benny and Biff out to meet the Navy goat I expect it would have gone over like that scene from jurassic park where they fed the cow to the raptor pit.

I think my profile pic tells you that I would love to have a live Wolverine on the sideline!

/s

The more I think about it, we should have a live wolverine on the sidelines.  Before the team runs out, we throw a stuffed doll of the opponents' in the cage with it and watch it tear it to shreds.

One can hope, right?

From the article: "Expanding the Michigan tradition wasn't the students' only motivation: they were in it for the money ..."

Ha -- I remember this issue well. I'd guess that money was their *only* motivation.

I suppose you could do worse than Willy, but I thought he was an abomination and that his founders/owners were annoying. (Smart guys, though, obviously ...) Who knows? If they'd taken a different tack (one involving less than, say, 97.7% of all proceeds), Willy might have gained traction.

One of the hardest things to do is to make a "cute" cartoony Wolverine.  Wolverines are ugly, mean little sacks of atomic rage.  They don't take well to "cute". 

See, not taking to "cute"

So either you have something that doesn't look like a Wolverine*, or something so hideous that no one wants their picture taken with it.  However, I do think DB will eventually lean towards something based around this:

By the way, unspoken in that DB quote: "We need a mascot because we keep getting left out of the This is SportsCenter ads and Red won't do them, I've asked."

*-No, it's OK, we still love you Wolverbear.

and their coupon packs. They were trying to market it to make money for themselves. I recall we all wante to punch those guys in the face. Also the character was highly cartoonish and lame.



No mascot...just hotter cheerleaders please.

For the most part I'm a traditionalist—not a fan of the faux throwbacks, for example—but I think DB is on the mark with his comments about younger fans and the lack of a mascot. If nothing else, there's a revenue stream that's just waiting to be taken advantage of, and I'd much rather see a mascot down on the field than advertising. Anybody who thinks kids really get off on being photographed next to the large inanimate block M either hates kids or has no clue about what makes them tick.

The "We're Michigan and we're too good for a mascot" attitude reminds me of those who were opposed to the stadium renovations because they were going to ruin the purity of the bowl.

I agree with Brandon that the key task is to design a mascot well. A bad mascot is much worse than no mascot at all.

Can this be our mascot?

Note the similarity in the marketing between the Big Chill (a great event and I actually like the bizarre sweaters) and the upcoming ND game.  The tight "branding" is painfully obvious and is trending toward the exact manufactured "tradition" that we escaped when Willy was sent to the hinterlands.  What Tiger Stadium had was real.  If Illitch wanted a ferris wheel or tap room on site he could easily have done it.  It wasn't in the right neighborhood, however, so he build Comerica.  Not a bad stadium, but the pewabic tiles, merry go round, plate shaped dirt around home, and teak chairs behind the plate are all more kitch than tradition.  Overall the place as all the "feel" of a waiting area at the Secretary of State's (beer helps).  It all reminds me that I can't take my son and daugher to the place where my folks took me.  Fortunately or unfortunately Comerica works for its owner.  I see very little that DB would prevent if money for HIS athletic department were at stake (I'm dissapointed that we get to look forward to still more Journey pumped through the loudspeakers).  Go Blue!

Check out "The Wolverine Way" by Doug Chadwick.  It's a good and quick read and it documents what we all inherently suspected- Wolverines are about as cool as critters get.

"It was obvious that the Michigan mascots had designs on the Michigan men toting them, and those designs were by no means friendly "
I look forward to seeing our players have this attitude on the field again especially on defense.

Good read.
I think a mascot would be a good idea if done right. After all " the traditionalists" will eventually just be dust in the wind and there will be entire new generations of kids that have another reason to bond with UofM. If you have ever taken your kids to a game you can see they love watching the other teams mascots.

...NO MASCOTS!!!!

and just have hugh jackman show up to games?

Lets turn his avatar into the mascot....scare the crap out of the children.

It's strange, we've had generations of kids, millions of them, who have successfully been turned into Michigan fans without having to exploit a mascot for the "revenue stream."

Does Dave Brandon not know how to leave things alone?

There's probably something to be said for Brandon's quote about kids.  My daughter loves Paws at the Tigers games.  She's almost four and is starting to get some comprehension of baseball, but she loves to see Paws and she loves to ride the merry go round and ferris wheel and I'm fine with that.  She like Austin Jackson because she got a bobblehead of his at a game.  A lot of us that use this site are hardcore types that would be into a team anyway, but the fact that I can get my daughter to break away from her princesses to watch the Tigers with me for 20 or 30 minutes at this age is nice, and I think those marketing type things make a difference. 

or so it seems. Indiana University expanded its stadium and the area around it to make it more family friendly. Kids can play football on turf and have other games to occupy them while the adults talk about how awesome it will be to beat Purdue later in the season.

Even Purdue tried to change its mascot to make it more appealing to kids. The nicer-looking mascot was voted back to the original, but Purdue still showed a willingness to cater to the family.

The fact is, if DB wants more butts in the seats, maybe families are the way to go. You sign up an alumnus, you get one person on the list. You sign up a Michigan family, you get them, their kids, their fellow alumni, etc.

I'm not an economist, I'm a law student, but this seems to make sense. If you make it fun for the whole family, a whole family would be more likely to go.

If we do get a mascot, though, I just hope it doesn't wear a skirt (I'm looking at you, Sparty)

How about: 

Dave Brandon really leaves me with a cold, icy feeling in my bones.  I am not fond of the man.

I don't really care either way about a mascot.  I do agree with the aspect about little kids liking it and making it family friendly.

All the DB hate on this board is getting pretty damn annoying.  The man understands tradition--he does but he also realizes there is another big part of the fan base. 

"I'm struck by the fact that when opposing teams come to our stadium, and they bring a mascot, all of our young fans are lined up to see if they can get a picture taken with it, whether it's the Penn State Nittany Lion or Sparty," Brandon told Michigan Today. "That's a little annoying to me.

WOW! What an asshole this guy is.  What say we storm Schembechler Hall with a with pitchforks?

If DB brings a mascot into the big house. I'm going to have an aneurism.

Given our choice seems to be a walking box of curly fries or a mascot, I guess we have to bite the bullet on the mascot.  Although watching the curly fries flee in terror from a real wolverine would also be acceptable.  

On the topic of wolverines rage issues.  A friend of mine was working a project to tag and track wolverines.  He went to take one out of a humane trap, it twisted free and got a piece of him.  Long story short they had to air lift him back to an ER room for three digits worth of stitches.  Wolverines are fur, pointy ends and anger issues basically.  

I wouldn't be opposed if it's done right.

Of course, any time you go to change/add anything there's going to be a collective group of people grumbling "This is MICHIGAN.  We are better than X."  Where X, of course, is whatever change is being considered.

At some point you guys are going to realize that a mascots target demographic isn't guys over 20 without kids who post on mgoblog all day.  Little kids love mascots, parents like when their kids are happy, the school likes it when parents by shit to make their kid happy.  A mascot makes sense, it doesn't actually hurt you at all and makes kids happy, not really all that hard to see why it makes more sense than not to have a mascot.

If we do get a (costume) mascot, it better look a hell of alot better than that maize and blue, tiger/bear looking paper mache thing that MSU students made in 2003....right before we beat them. 

I'm not a fan of the mascot idea but if Brandon is hell-bent on doing it, he should make a costume version of the 1920's or 30's era wolverine with the sailor hat.

the only acceptable mascot at this point is a giant shoelace with wings.

Why doesn't Dave Brandon stop messing with the tradition.  When the team starts winning again, all of this crap about revenue streams, expanding demographics will all get flushed down the crapper.  winning sells jerseys.  Winning sells tickets at higher prices.  Winning sends the team to bowl games outside of the state of Florida.  

I think a mascot would be fine. Just make it look cool and not cartoony. I like the Willy name, go with something like that and debut him by him running down the tunnel in a surprise type thing at halftime and beat up the EMU mascot or something like that.

If we have to get a mascot it should have nothing to do with a Wolverine. My two top choices are Clippy the office assistant or The Noid from Dominoes fame.  Nothing would throw off a spread teams timing like avoiding the noid.

after following Michigan football for over 40 years is that we don't have a LIVE wolverine mascot. And don't tell me that it would be too vicious to have on the sidelines. Hunter Thompson had TWO, count em, TWO pet wolverines on his ranch! If a wolverine is raised from infancy by humans it can be tame, more or less, in their company. I'm sure if Brandon put the word out to fans for a tame live wolverine for a mascot, we would soon have one snarling on the sidelines.

I'm no advocate of a mascot, but if DB is going to TRY one...I hope he don't also burden us with a cutesy name, too. 

(as someone else suggested in the comments in the MIchigan Today article Victor Valiant posted the link to...one obvious one would be Victor...)

I am opposed to any cheesy fake mascot, and I think real wolverines are, uh, problematic.  However, I do have fond memories of Whiskey and Brandy pushing the ball around at halftime.

Here's a pretty comprehensive recap of the Michigan mascot story:  http://michigantoday.umich.edu/2011/06/story.php?id=8003&tr=y&auid=8513677

Please no!  I love the fact that we are one of the few programs without a mascot.  Please don't parade some idiot along the sideline.  This would turn me against Brandon

I'm pretty sure the author is wrong about at least one thing:

Yost was a visionary but he was also a competitor. He built Michigan Stadium so that, some day, it could be expanded to fit some 300,000 football fans. (Michigan Stadium is not even halfway there more than eight decades later.)

Like a tall tale, this number keeps getting inflated. The story used to be Yost wanted it to hold 140,000 fans, and built footings put in that could eventually support that.  In recent years, sportswriters have been claiming he wanted 200,000 seats. This is the first time I've seen 300,000 claimed.

I'm having trouble envisioning any mascot that won't be Bucky-lite or way too goofy. I have a hard time believing families are going to decide to buy tickets for the first time because Michigan added a person running around in a giant manbearpig suit. Isn't there, y'know, a waiting list to get season tickets as it is?

I understand DB's impulse to wring all of the possible revenue out of Michigan football. At a certain point, you're damaging the brand. Would a mascot itself mean the end of the M football tradition? No, but soon it will be the "Wilbert the Wolverine T-Shirt Toss sponsored by TCF Bank." I can appreciate the night game, understand the merchandising of the fauxbacks, but adding something that substantively redirects attention and changes the game experience starts to really alter the Michigan Football atmosphere.

Also, I'm real tired of the "DB understands and respects the tradition" line just being said for the sake of it. Who would've thought we'd have a box of curly fries at a Michigan game, even if it was the commercialized Big Chill? I know that the "Arby's" logo prevented me and a ton of other students from buying Big Chill merch. I understand modernizing and increasing revenue, but maybe, just maybe, if he's trying to add things that alter our tradition he DOESN'T really understand its importance? Sure, I'm sure he knows the tradition, but it's kind of clear he doesn't respect it or its importance.

In conclusion, GET OFF MY LAWN.

I have a stuffed wolverine that's wearing a blue t shirt with a block m on it and is wearing a maize sailor hat. If the mascot looked like this I'd have no problem with one. I'll see if I can find it and post the picture because it's the only one of it's kind I've ever seen.

edit: mother has it at work. Once she brings it back I'll post a picture.

I also like the old school wolverine with the block M t-shirt and sailor hat.  And wasn't Willy the Wolverine generally popular, especially with the students?  I definitely remember him roaming the sidelines for a very short time.  I'm not sure a Wolverine is particularly marketable as a mascot, but if Penn State can market that carpet remnant they call a Nittany Lion, then anything is possible.  I used to like the old days when the cheerleaders would pick up the opponents mascot and run him in to the goalpost groin first.  Back to the Nittany Lion--that thing looks to be about the same quality as the gorilla suit from "Trading Places."

Unless its live...do not want.

I have a feeling that what Brian mentioned is starting to come true, you give one inch you give a mile, DB is slowly bur surley corporatizing (is that a word?) the Michigan brand into one that sells out every bit of marketing space and will soon be having bobblehead giveaways and ketchup/mustard races during TV timeouts.    

The state of Michigan does not have any wild wolverines left, unless some naturally migrated back to the state from Canada that I am not aware of.  Being a Wildlife Biologist, I follow many wildlife issues, especially ones in Michigan.  Having a reintroduction plan for wolverines would be a suitable first step in bringing the population back.  It kind of sounds strange to be called the "wolverine" state when we no longer have wild wolverines in the state, then again California still has the Grizzly bear on their state flag. 

I listen to 97.1 on a daily basis, and when news came out a couple years ago that the last remaining wild wolverine passed away the Karsch and Anderson show had a survey on what should be some possibilities of a mascot for the University of Michigan?  I remember someone's response was that the mascot should be a painting of that last wolverine from photos taken of him. 

And I think I spent most of the game watching the xheerleaders sneak up on him to ram his crotch into the goalposts. In hindsight, I apologize to my father for NOT WATCHING THE GODAMNED GAME! I am sure I missed a lot of great of tackle runs.



Please db, break this chain of ADD at sporting events. for the adults.

As an alum and someone fond of this particular non-tradition, I am fine with no mascot. My kids, however, like to have their photo taken with every plush-like figure, life-size or handheld.

Thinking back when I was a young lad, I could have cared less about a mascot. I wanted to see Bo yell, Jamie Morris run, Greg Skrepenak dominate, and Mark Messner destroy people. If I had seen Sparty back then, I would have kicked him in the shin.

I sat down with my kids to watch "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" on Hub Network because I foolishly have digital cable and I couldn't resist my daughter doing the guilt face saying, "Will you watch my show with me?"......we could have the first mascot that is Flash animation like this show. 

I don't know what it is about cincy, but I was trying to google for pix from a mascot baseball game I suffered through (trying to watch the Cubs a couple years ago) and found that cincy puts on all sorts of scary games involving herds of mascots...click play if you dare:

either a live, rabid wolverine, or nothing, I say.

We don't have a mascot?

in the works. 

Bo was everything we stand for at Michigan. RIP big guy!!!