<p>y Sarah Badami, The Dartmouth Staff
Published on Friday, March 2, 2007</p>
<p>Phil Bracikowski/The Dartmouth Staff
Dartmoose toys line shelves at the Dartmouth Co-op. Student Assembly is attempting to institute the Dartmoose as the College’s official mascot.
When Student Assembly administered a mascot survey in 2003, participants chose between the Dartmoose, Dr. Seuss characters and the Salty Dog, among other options. The most popular choice: the Dartmoose, with 28 percent of the votes.</p>
<p>“The moose is very outdoorsy, like Dartmouth,” Thomas Santamaria '10 said. “I think it relates to our school very well.”</p>
<p>The Facebook group “Students for the Dartmoose” reached 1,000 members in December 2006, boasting in its profile that it was Dartmouth’s largest group.</p>
<p>Dartmouth’s Programming Board recently hosted a Valentine’s Day event where students could stuff their own Dartmoose.</p>
<p>“Given the student interest that has been expressed in possibly having the Dartmoose as our mascot [Programming Board] figured that it would be a neat thing to offer to students,” Programming Board member Cory Cunningham '10 said. (Cunningham is a member of The Dartmouth staff.)</p>
<p>…Does the “Dartmoose” concept make anyone else just want to giggle? It’s not exactly the most ferocious creature, but I guess the Dartmouth football team hasn’t been inspiring fear in anybody’s hearts recently anyway. It’s definitely cute. And definitely a big change from “Keggy the Keg.”</p>
<p>The mascot for Dartmouth is “the Big Green” – not exactly catchy, but that’s it. I like the Dartmoose idea – it’s actually very appropriate for Dartmouth, and I don’t think there are any “ferocious” people up there.</p>
<p>Personally, I love the fact that Dartmouth allows dogs almost everywhere. Maybe the mascot should be a big ol’ Golden Retriever just lumbering along somewhere…</p>
<p>Connecticut College has the Camels, so why not a moose?
Though what was wrong with the Big Green (whatever a big green is)?
I think McDaniel College is the Green Terror, or something like that.</p>
<p>Lspf, the students weren’t huge fans of being the Big Green, I don’t think (they were The Indians before that). The students tried to get the administration to appoint a new mascot years ago by creating a new “mascot” called Keggy the Keg. Keggy was, of course, dressed like a keg and attended all the athletic events. I think the students were kind of hoping this would encourage the school to get a “real” mascot, but Keggy pretty much stuck as the unofficial mascot–even many alums liked him.</p>
<p>Keggy?! Well, the moose makes for much more marketable products:).
Our younger daughter wants her brother to attend Tufts mostly because she wants him to send her one of the little stuffed elephants (Jumbos) they sell at the college bookstore. If it were a keg, I’d probably tell him to pass…</p>
<p>I can tell you’ve never had an up close and personal moose encounter on the roads of New Hampshire. Trust me, when you actually see one walking along a road (or an Interstate highway), it gets your attention. They make deer look like puppy dogs.</p>
<p>The Dartmouth mascot used to be in Indian, I think. Their acapella singing group was the Injunnaires and they changed it to the Dartmouth Aires. Thought it all interesting in reading in the NY Times this week about UICU and their Indian mascot change.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is now the Big Green. The Dartmoose makes sense given the location of the school and its outdoorsy nature. The Indian was the mascot, just as it was at Stanford before the Politically Correct folks got rid of that at both schools. While the Dartmoose doesn’t inspire much fear in the hearts of opponents, it could be a lot worse. Like Dartmouth, Stanford has a color (Cardinal) serving as the school’s nickname and Stanford has chosen a “Tree” to serve as its symbol at sporting events. A tree.</p>