<p><em>gasp</em> nnnooooo!!! that’s absolutely the best part of all those ads, I love that they make the little terp all intimidating, its adorable haha, and its clever! what are they thinking? they better not come up with anything better, what will people do w/ all their fear the turtle shirts now?</p>
<p>I had the same reaction when I read today’s Diamondback. (Maybe we can hawk our used t shirts on eBay?)</p>
<p>I love that turtle. It is actually what got me to look into UMD. A box turtle has adopted us, and it reminded me of a brochure we received from UMD, so I gave it a second look. It actually looks like it might be a good choice for son!</p>
<p>Just returned from Costco with my daughter who will be a freshman in the fall. She was wearing her turtle sweatshirt and the guy at the checkout commented on how that was a great, fierce-looking turtle! D was very pleased! We haven’t even begun our time at UMD, but WE WANT THE TURTLE!!</p>
<p>Oh I will be so bumming if they change the slogan. It will be hard to convince the public to accept a new slogan. I think what bothers me more, is why hire an ad company(spend absorbent $$$ which we pay), wouldn’t it have been great that if they were determined to change it that they opened it to the students to design it. You can’t tell me UMD doesn’t have the talent, after all Jim Henson graduated from there!</p>
<p>Box turtles are actually very fierce creatures. Our new yard inhabitant can move very fast and eats cat food! Even my huntress, who kills baby possums, won’t mess with him. If you wikipedia box turtle, you will discover that they can snap their beaks in such a way to make a sound to drive off predators. Scared to pick him up when he’s in the way, just wait for him to move on, which he does very quickly! Yes, we do FEAR THE TURTLE!</p>
<p>I too have had experiences like the one jnrsmom describes. I have a FEAR THE TURTLE hoodie and I swear everytime I wear it someone walking behind me is like, “fear…the…turtle??” I just laugh and say heck yeah! They can’t get rid of it.</p>
<p>montegut…oh dear. I had no idea.</p>
<p>Fear the turtle…fear the Terps…Maryland rocks!</p>
<p>How about that for a slogan for the sports teams!!! 
Guess I’m just getting worried about the turtle slowly walking away…</p>
<p>The turtle will always stay, it is just what he will look like. I believe when Bullet was there, the turtle was designed to be on all fours.</p>
<p>I was like everybody else when I found out they have a turtle as a mascot, I just laughed while trying to say oh yeah turtles frighten people. Now I love that little guy!</p>
<p>My favorite tee shirt that all of my children have is the one with The good, (terp), the bad (Duke) and the Ugly (UNC) on it. I better buy some more before they change him from the SUperman position.</p>