When was your mascot adopted?
 

Ok, so most GLOs have official symbols. ie, Pi Beta Phi's is the arrow. This important because obviously it's a part of our badge and was with us from our founding.

We also have an unoffical mascot or symbol, which is the angel. This was adopted loosely in the 1930s from rush skits and songs about Pi Phi angels and then became widespread, and was finally adopted unofficially by our national organization as well.

When was your mascot (official or unofficial) adopted? ie, the Kappa Delta teddy bear (teddy bears weren't even invented when Kappa Delta was founded), Phi Mu's Sir Fidel, SGRho's poodle? Was there a period in time when a lot of GLOs were adopting such mascots? If so why was that?

Our unofficial mascot-the turtle-was adopted sometime in the 70's to honor a past National President (ashamed to say I don't know her name off the top of my head). Many of our older alums don't acknowledge the turtle at all....

Some of our chapters have different unofficial mascots b/c other chapters at their schools already had turtles by the time we started using them (I know of one that uses bunnies instead of turtles).

AEPhi's mascot is the giraffe because it has the largest heart of all the animals and it stands above the rest. I think AEPhi adopted it as its official mascot sometime in the 1970's.

Don't know exactly when Alpha Sigma Phi's Phoenix was adopted, but my guess would be after the second founding of the fraternity in 1907.

The Phoenix symbolizes rebirth; after Alpha chapter at Yale disappeared in 1872, Delta chapter at Marietta kept the ritual and traditions intact until Alpha was reborn in 1907.

Our unofficial mascot is the Gammy Bug, which was adopted around 1947. (That's when it first appeared in our Pledge Manual.) I can't find a picture anywhere, but here is a physical description from our newest history book:

The body of the bug bore more than a modest resemblance to the pin for new members, as it was shaped in a rounded triangular shape and decorated with a crescent. Extending from this body were two thin legs, two thin arms (or, given that this was a bug, two additional thin legs), and a round, smiling face with two antennae.

Many chapters do not use the Gammy Bug (or Gammie Bug, as my chapter calls it) and have an unofficial mascot of their own. I know two of our chapters (Witchita State and Alabama) use the penguin, and Delta Lambda uses the lamb.

Yes - at the 1977 national convention.

You made me look it up in my new member manual... ;)

Alpha Gamma Delta
 

1906
Skiouros the Squirrel made its first appearance as a mascot with the installation of Gamma Chapter at Wesleyan University, Middletown Connecticut.

We don't use the ladybug symbol nationally, and I wouldn't even say the use of the ladybug is widespread -- too many Phi Mu chapters are near ASA chapters!

I'd guess its use stems from the term we use to educate our pledges on becoming a "Phi Mu lady."

Sir Fidel, of course, is named after our closed motto, les souers fideles, which sounds like Sir Fidel in French. Kind of.

ASA does not have a national mascot. Raggedy Ann used to be used widely but I think Bobbs-Merrill (Annie's parents) weren't happy with that. The ladybug started to pop up sometime in the mid-90s, but I think there are lots of older chapters that don't really use it. There are still other mascots (turtles, apples etc).

The Phoenix is on our crest and is our magazine title, and I really like it as an image, but it's kinda hard to find a cute and cuddly phoenix to give your little. :)

i could be wrong, but i thought closed mottos were supposed to be kept secret...

You mean our open motto, right Jac? ;)

We randomly use ladybugs on some stuff here, but not a lot. We use Sir Fidel like crazy though haha, I think every girl here has a drawing of a cute lion on her door.

Delta Phi Epsilon adopted the unicorn as its mascot in 1981.
http://www.dphie.org/img/symbols/unicorn1.gif

TKE does not have and official mascot. Many chapters use the knight though because we were first the knights of classic lore before TKE. There was a brief mascot in the late 70's early 80's that died out called Zeke. Thats why Tom calls me Zeke for those of you that wondered.

Epsilon Sigma Phi adopted two mascots in 1996: the tigress and Whinne the Pooh. It is a little complicated to explain why we adopted the tigress. Whinne the Pooh is easier to explain. Since we are a sorority about diversity, Whinne the Pooh was a clear choice. He never discriminates when choosing his friends. Also, he is so gosh darn cute!!!

http://smilies.jeeptalk.org/otn/wink/smily012.gif

You're right, Fab, I did mean open. I have no idea why I wrote "closed." If it wasn't actually in the post I'd say I didn't!

man. Time for some sleep.

Kappa Alpha Theta does not have a national mascot. Some chapters have been known to say that the kite is our mascot during rush sometimes, but the kite is really our symbol like the arrow is a symbol for Pi Beta Phi.

Some of our chapters, such as mine, have adopted a local mascot. My chapter's is the bumble bee because they are black and gold like our colors. The mascot itself however has no real special meaning and is NOT incorporated into ritual.

Sigma Kappa doesn't have any nationally recognized mascots. Our symbols though are the dove and with the heart, which luckily are very easy things to find when looking for gifts!
I am not sure if chapters have their own mascots or not. Mine didn't. Some families at my chapter though had mascots. There was the cow family and the bear family.
I am curious now though. Any Sig Kap chapters with mascots out there?

http://www.greek.villanova.edu/alpha...ers/alphie.gif

I should know this, but I can't find it. There is a lion on emblems from 1904. I don't know when he became Alphie, though, and I think there was a year or two when a unicorn was used (before 1904).

not Sigma but I lived with them....
 

I think Alpha Beta chapter (Georgetown College) used the mouse at one point. I know that it is the plush animal that is indicated for them in our bookstore and they used in on little gifts.

I for some reason thought that SK had the snake at one point.

I think some of the SKs on here said that they were trying to move away from the snake because they're not exactly cuddly.

And this is from the old DG webpage about Hannah:

Although the song about "Hannah" is known by many Delta Gammas and has been generally sung since the '30s, its origins go back to an earlier date to a vaudeville ditty, "Hannah from Indiana," written by R.H. Wilson who, many years later, would be a Delta Gamma father. In the late '50s, "Hannah" became a perky, pigtailed blonde, wearing a short skirt and sailor blouse. This "Hannah" became known Fraternity-wide as the model for the "Hannah" Delta Gammas had sung about for so long.

There's more info on the new webpage, but my computer is so incredibly slow it would take me 5 minutes to pull it up. Most people are probably familiar with Hannah as a Raggedy-Ann doll, but she can't *officially* be that because of copyright infringements.

Chi Os mascot is the owl which has been around since the beginning, and some chapters have their own mascots. My chapter uses the chili pepper just as much as we use the owl, it has been around so long and is so accepted that nobody knows where it originated. . .

Side note: The Phi Mus here use the ladybug all the time. . . you never see the lion used for gifts and if it is the only time I have seen it was on gifts from like licensed people on the internet,etc. I don't know if it is because we also have ADPi on campus and there are only 4 sororities so Phi Mu started using the lion less I don't know.

Honey, you're right. Our mascot was once a unicorn. Eventually, the lion was adopted.

Tri-sigma doesn't really have a mascot (though families...bigs, littles...typically have a theme...i'm a naked bunny) or I just feel that a non-living thing could be considered a mascot. The symbol for sigma was adopted in 1974. It is the sailboat (one of the two nautical themed sororities). It is the saiboat because sigma's are always sailing forward and never looking back. It has nothing to do with our ritual...and well, it's impossible to find stuffed sailboats to give as gifts.

rattle snake was adotpted in 1856


unoffically we use OX but usally drawn/depicted as a minataur.

that's because our letters Theta Chi look like OX

FYI: AST and DG both have anchors as their official symbols. I don't know if AST takes the nautical theme quite as far as DG does, though.

Re: When was your mascot adopted?
 

The official mascot for SGRho is the Toy French Poodle, which was adopted in the late 60's (like '67 or '68). The mascot was suggested by Soror Quindonell Robertson of Zeta Delta Sigma Chapter. The poodle was selected because it is an intelligent animal.

My sorority's offical mascot in the dove, unofficial is the lamb :)

Phi Mu Alpha has never had an official mascot, but early on in our history an enigmatic black cat, known as the "Mystic Cat," became part of our lore. At one point, our national publication was called "The Mystic Cat"; the Mystic Cat appeared on the cover of our first songbook, and for a while, new members were sometimes nicknamed "kittens."

No one really knows anything about the origin of the Mystic Cat. As one song said:

"The most mysterious mystery is our mighty mystic cat,
He prowls about our chapter rooms and waxes sleek and fat;
We wonder what and where he is, but all to no avail --
He's a mystery from his mystic nose to the tip of his mystic tail."

The Mystic Cat has enjoyed something of a revival in the last decade or two, so I guess one could perhaps say that the Mystic Cat is our unofficial mascot.

I have also heard that SK's are trying to move away from the snake as a mascot. It's one of our symbols, which is talked about in Ritual, but we don't hold it as a mascot. The chapters I know of all use different things: panda bears, penguins, etc. Our local mascot used to be Winnie the Pooh. A number of years ago, as the story goes, it was the end of the school semester and girls were leaving the dorms. Two were roommates and SK's and one girl had moved out and was already downstairs when she realized that she had left her stuffed Winnie the Pooh upstairs in her room. Instead of going back upstairs to get it, she called out to her roommate who was still in the room (the window must have been open), and the roommate tossed the Pooh bear out the window to the sister. People then seemed to associate us with Winnie the Pooh. Well, that got old real quick, so a couple of years ago we changed it to a butterfly. It starts out as a caterpillar and morphs into something beautiful, much like a pledge going through the transformation to become a sister.:)

Chi Omega was founded April 5, 1895 and the owl was selected as a symbol within a few weeks when one of our founders, Ina May Boles, was working on the design of the badge.

sorority mascot
 

zeta tau alpha does not have an official mascot, although many chapters use a white rabbit as such. symbols of zeta are the 5 pointed crown and strawberries. the crown appears on our badge. strawberries were sent to one of the founders when she was still in college by a gentleman admirer. when i was in college (late 70's early 80's) my chapter used the butterfly as a mascot,but i think it is bunnies now!

Re: sorority mascot
 

That's funny because when I was in college (97-01) my chapter used the bunny and now it's a butterfly! ;)

True....we have the anchor as our symbol, but that's about as nautical as we get. Although I have seen old pictures of our chapter in sailor-esqe looking dresses......I think (hope!) that it was an isolated event.

Sigma Nu's "mascot" is the snake. It appears in the center of our badge. The reason for it is none of ya'lls' business:D

I never knew that the Phi Mu's use the ladybug as their unofficial mascot! Keeping in mind that Macon Magnolia bond between Alpha Delta Pi and Phi Mu, I couldn't help but remember one of our sisters. Her brother rebuilt a candy-apple red VW Beetle for her, then painted big black dots on it and made the headlights look like eyes! It was adorable!!

that sounds so cute!

I have also never heard of the ladybug as their unofficial mascot!

(Then again, I never knew ADPi's "mascot" was a unicorn at one time either!)

This is indeed an interesting thread! I had no idea how many sororities didn't have "official" mascots and has each chapter use their own unofficial one.

Phi Sig's Symbol is the sphinx... VERY HARD TO FIND... it has been used since our founding, as far as mascots every chapter has their own... Delta Gamma chapter mascot is the Lion :) I notice most of the stuff produced for us like on greek 101 has our flower instead of our symbol because sphinxes just aren't very easy to make I guess... :D

KLP's mascot is a lamb named Gamma. I don't know the exact date when we first started using it, but the sorority was founded in 1980, so it was a little bit after that.

Theta Phi Alpha adopted the penguin as our official mascot in 1987. :)