Survival of the citrus: SU weeds through weak crop of mascots, grows a real winner with Otto
Anyone with the slightest interest in Syracuse University athletics knows Otto and his firecracker personality. A staple at SU games, the fuzzy orange energetically bounces around the Carrier Dome, raising students’ school spirit. Though it is hard to imagine a game without Otto, many current SU students may be surprised to know that he is just a young, 21-year-old mascot.
In the 1920s, SU football had a four-legged mascot with a mind of its own named Vita the Goat. According to the Class of 1925 Onondagan Yearbook, the goat was ‘held in leash by freshman guardians’ during the games. She was draped in signs encouraging SU football players to beat competing schools.
As stubborn as goats are rumored to be, Vita didn’t stick around for long. In October 1931, The Syracuse Orange Peel, a campus magazine, reported that excavations near Steele Hall allegedly uncovered the remains of Big Chief Bill Orange, a 16th-century Onondagan chief. The article was a hoax, but it marked the end of Vita and the beginning of the Saltine Warrior.
According to a Feb. 22, 1990, article in The Daily Orange, the father of a Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity brother created the Saltine Warrior costume in the mid-1950s. The Lambda Chi brothers began a 40-year tradition dressing as SU’s mascot, but it ended in 1990 when the university enabled any student to participate in the mascot tradition.
In 1978, there was a shift in mascots again. The Office of Student Affairs rejected the stereotypical Native American when members of a Native American student organization protested, said Claudia Estelle in a Sept. 15, 1978, editorial in The Daily Orange.
‘(It’s) all in the presentation,’ said Onondagan Chief Oren Lyons, a 1958 alumnus and former SU lacrosse star, in a March 23, 1976, article in The Daily Orange. ‘The thing that offended me when I was there was that guy running around like a nut.’
The Warrior’s retirement sparked a somewhat desperate contest among possible successors, according to a Feb. 12, 1978, article in The Daily Orange. Enter a Roman-style gladiator clad in orange armor. Cue Egnaro the Troll, stomping around the turf. According to the SyracuseFan.com forum, people even proposed the cowboy-like Dome Ranger; Dome Eddie, described as ‘a gnat-like figure in orange sweats with Elton John glasses and an incandescent wig’ by Sports Illustrated; and a green monster named Beast from the East.
‘No other team would ever be able to forget the SU troll,’ Estelle said. ‘Can’t you see Egnaro chasing the West Virginia Mountaineer around Archbold Stadium?’
In 1980, a vague idea of an Orange ‘with appeal’ was introduced, according to an April 4, 1980, article in The Daily Orange. According to a 1929 issue of the Alumni News, an orange was chosen to represent SU because it was symbolic ‘of the glory of the sunrise and the hopes of the golden future. It is the hue of strength, vigor and confidence.’
Lambda Chi brothers first named their Orange costume ‘Clyde’ and then ‘Woody.’ The brothers considered two potential names for their third Orange costume: Opie or Otto. They feared Opie would evoke the rhyme ‘dopey,’ so they christened SU’s favorite fruit Otto in 1990.
‘We want something that will symbolize SU’s dynamic athletic program and would appeal to prospective students,’ said Peter Webber, director of auxiliary services, according to an article in the March 27 weekly issue of Syracuse Record.
After some more deliberation, then-Chancellor Kenneth ‘Buzz’ Shaw said he believed the SU community truly loved Otto and named him the official SU mascot, according to a Dec. 5, 1995, article in The Daily Orange.
Otto is now a symbol of SU’s athletic vigor — and it’s difficult to imagine a game without the young hallmark mascot.
Published on November 9, 2011 at 12:00 pm
