Bringing back the original Eppy for Idaho game?

[Cougar King]

Give me Scrappy or death!

So sad, what little knowledge, what is an Eppy?

Scrappy is old school good god!

Blame the anti-athletics, hippie population for the name change.

As much as I like Scrappy (still have pictures with him before my defection) Shasta is better.

^With Casey K,

^Punching the Oregon mascot, showing him the way we do things on Cullen.

^Being an overall badass.

^Shasta VI, the current live mascot. Still a cub (or not considering how he has grown quite a bit from when this picture was taken) he was born in the middle of last year.

^Shasta III, also known as The Lady. (Until Shasta VI, who is male, Shasta I-V were all female.

One would think that UNT would keep a live eagle but knowing the type of students who go there, that wouldn't go without controversy and most likely some student would open the cage. Now if you were to find an Albino Squirrel...no that notion failed too. SMH.

[LongJim]

One would think that UNT would keep a live eagle but knowing the type of students who go there, that wouldn't go without controversy and most likely some student would open the cage. Now if you were to find an Albino Squirrel...no that notion failed too. SMH.

Did you guys cut a claw off of all of them for tradition's sake?

[JesseMartin]

We can't legally keep a live eagle, we checked. Well, if we made a little mini-zoo or aviary with our own zookeeping staff, we could (which would be pretty cool). Isn't Shasta an off-brand soda? It would be funny if the cougars were named for a soda family.

[UNT 90 Grad]

We can't legally keep a live eagle, we checked. Well, if we made a little mini-zoo or aviary with our own zookeeping staff, we could (which would be pretty cool). Isn't Shasta an off-brand soda? It would be funny if the cougars were named for a soda family.

The eagle mascot was brought to life at the NT-Oklahoma Tech football game on October 6, 1950, when Denton merchant Tommy Laney presented No-Name, a live golden eagle (later discovered to be a Southeast Asian Sea Eagle). A contest was offered to name the new mascot, and Scrappy became the first bird at NT. After living at the NT Club House until spring, Scrappy moved to the Forest Park Zoo in Fort Worth until a permanent cage was built for him in fall 1951.

In 1952, an American bald eagle with a 7-foot wingspan was donated by Warren S. Dill. Students named him Beaky in a February 1952 election. But 540 students quickly signed a petition opposing the name. A runoff election took place and Victor won. Victor would have been the first American bald eagle for NT, but he died of heat exhaustion in August before making an appearance. Scrappy returned to NT making special appearances from 1952 until he died in 1959.

In 1960, a new golden eagle was acquired and named Victor. Then the federal government offered NT an American bald eagle in 1962. The bird, named Scrappy, died before it could be transferred to NT.

In 1963, Mr. Eagle became the first human eagle mascot provided by the NT Marching Band. Marching band director Maurice McAdow and Mrs. Helen Wright of the School of Business Administration designed the costume. It was made of leather and plastic with a chicken wire and paper mache head. Eric Brewster, assistant drum major, "flew" into the stadium for the first NT game of the season.

In 1967, Talons purchased a matched pair of crested serpent eagles, christened Scrappy II and Scrappy III. Housed at the Fort Worth Zoo, Talons brought one of the eagles to each home game. Problems began to arise with the live mascots, so the Talons replaced them with an eagle costume.

http://www.unt.edu/traditions/

[forevereagle]

That is one nasty under-bite. Also, did he eat a lemon or something?

[JesseMartin]

I wasn't talking about the 50s and 60s - I meant right now, we can't. The last effort I know of was in the late 90s. I mentioned this another time too, but a few people looked into it and the only affordable way was to do Last Chance Forever, where there's a show with a live eagle and a trainer. Unless you have somebody specifically licensed as a trainer or zookeeper or something, you can't have a live eagle anymore. So I guess we could "adopt" one and have it housed at a zoo somewhere, maybe pay to have a trainer bring it to games. Or we could raise money for an aviary and hire a staff. But as far as being at games, I don't know if even that would be allowed since the noise could be considered harmful if conservationists think that it would cause the bird stress. Seriously, there are tons of restrictions on any live eagle usage now.

Also, Scrappy won the nation's best mascot award as noted in another thread, so we don't really have to concern ourselves with whether he's good enough. I do like the one that looks like a Native American tribal costume, though.

Edited August 8, 2013 by JesseMartin

[aztecskin]

Can't believe we killed 3 eagles. . .

[meangreener]

Shasta is a pretty cruddy mascot, sorry bro

[adman]

Shasta I-V were all female.

Fitting.

[TheWestie]

If only these folks had a Bald Eagle.

http://www.bpraptorcenter.org/

FYI, Bald Eagles spend the winter down here and you can see them around Ray Roberts and sometimes Lake Lewisville.

[JesseMartin]

If only these folks had a Bald Eagle.

http://www.bpraptorcenter.org/

FYI, Bald Eagles spend the winter down here and you can see them around Ray Roberts and sometimes Lake Lewisville.

Actually, I'm curious if this discussion is indicative of the amount of interest in the alumni and fan bases to obtain a "live" mascot, even if not used for game purposes. There are a lot more hoops through which we'd have to jump to make it feasible than if we had a different animal as a mascot, but:

1) Do you guys think there's enough interest to make this worth looking into (again)?

2) If so, where should we start? I'd say get updates on wildlife retention requirements and then review what we'd need (financially, facility-wise, staff, etc.) in order to see just what kind of obstacle we're looking at.

So what do you guys think - are there enough people who either want it or are mildly interested for us to even look into it?

[Christopher Walker]

One would think that UNT would keep a live eagle but knowing the type of students who go there, that wouldn't go without controversy and most likely some student would open the cage. Now if you were to find an Albino Squirrel...no that notion failed too. SMH.

The eagle mascot was brought to life at the NT-Oklahoma Tech football game on October 6, 1950, when Denton merchant Tommy Laney presented No-Name, a live golden eagle (later discovered to be a Southeast Asian Sea Eagle). A contest was offered to name the new mascot, and Scrappy became the first bird at NT. After living at the NT Club House until spring, Scrappy moved to the Forest Park Zoo in Fort Worth until a permanent cage was built for him in fall 1951.

In 1952, an American bald eagle with a 7-foot wingspan was donated by Warren S. Dill. Students named him Beaky in a February 1952 election. But 540 students quickly signed a petition opposing the name. A runoff election took place and Victor won. Victor would have been the first American bald eagle for NT, but he died of heat exhaustion in August before making an appearance. Scrappy returned to NT making special appearances from 1952 until he died in 1959.

In 1960, a new golden eagle was acquired and named Victor. Then the federal government offered NT an American bald eagle in 1962. The bird, named Scrappy, died before it could be transferred to NT.

In 1963, Mr. Eagle became the first human eagle mascot provided by the NT Marching Band. Marching band director Maurice McAdow and Mrs. Helen Wright of the School of Business Administration designed the costume. It was made of leather and plastic with a chicken wire and paper mache head. Eric Brewster, assistant drum major, "flew" into the stadium for the first NT game of the season.

In 1967, Talons purchased a matched pair of crested serpent eagles, christened Scrappy II and Scrappy III. Housed at the Fort Worth Zoo, Talons brought one of the eagles to each home game. Problems began to arise with the live mascots, so the Talons replaced them with an eagle costume.

http://www.unt.edu/traditions/

Dang, a part of UNT football I had no clue of!

I wasn't talking about the 50s and 60s - I meant right now, we can't. The last effort I know of was in the late 90s. I mentioned this another time too, but a few people looked into it and the only affordable way was to do Last Chance Forever, where there's a show with a live eagle and a trainer. Unless you have somebody specifically licensed as a trainer or zookeeper or something, you can't have a live eagle anymore. So I guess we could "adopt" one and have it housed at a zoo somewhere, maybe pay to have a trainer bring it to games. Or we could raise money for an aviary and hire a staff. But as far as being at games, I don't know if even that would be allowed since the noise could be considered harmful if conservationists think that it would cause the bird stress. Seriously, there are tons of restrictions on any live eagle usage now.

Also, Scrappy won the nation's best mascot award as noted in another thread, so we don't really have to concern ourselves with whether he's good enough. I do like the one that looks like a Native American tribal costume, though.

In my last few months as a Senator in SGA a few years ago, a fellow Senator and I put together some pretty good legislation on obtaining a new live mascot in the mindset of the War Eagle at Auburn.

Our proposal was to build a separate wing/sanctuary for the bird(s) off of the excellent mini-conservatory that is adjoined to the EESAT building on its North side. It would be replete with its own staff and would have partnered with the Talons for training, etc. What would of have been super awesome for its location would be including the eagles and sanctuary as part of the excellent science and nature field trips that the EESAT offers elementary schoolers.

We proposed to fund the whole thing with a significant portion of SGA's M&O budget as those funds had largely gone unused or at least not used in a satisfactory manner or on things with a low ROI, and any remaining funds would roll into a general surplus fund at the conclusion of the school year. We ended up falling into the pitfall of lame duck session though, as we were at the point where Senate didn't want to consider any new expenditures as a new President and administration was incoming and many of those Senators wanted to apply for paid Cabinet positions... so, don't dedicate the new guy's coffers, look good in getting a job.

You know, politics.

----

I for one though would be ecstatic in helping out an alumni cause/fund to secure a live mascot, and would love to see the EESAT sanctuary idea find life again.

[JesseMartin]

We had some similar issues when I was there, but mostly the budget debate was about whether people should get extra perks If there was something like this involved I don't see how anybody could oppose it...sponsored by SGA and involving multiple other campus entities, good use of funds, great opportunity. So of course it's a bad idea But seriously...the EESAT was pretty new at the time so obviously there have been some big changes since then...is there space available for this if we can get support? If you want this, I would think the 2 main things to know are whether a facility would be feasible and what it would cost...including whether this would be a function of existing staff or if new salaries/benefits would have to be budgeted. If it's a possibility, this would be a great "win" for everybody if there was space at the EESAT...academics, environment, athletics, spirit, extracurricular, and overall community awesomeness. I don't have the money to help with that part, but I have a brain, a computer, and a phone, and that's usually all I've needed if other people were on board. Also, prior to the push we would need to know where we had support and where we didn't in terms of Facilities Management, CAS/Env Sci/Bio Sci and of course the BOR. So I would think a "soft sell" to see what those departments thought, as well as a call to the Student Regent (about damn time we had one!) might be in order. Any other thoughts, anyone? And Walker - are you good with scheduling meetings with department chairs and the like (I assume so but want to be sure)? If not I'm sure others on here would help out.

Maybe we just need a "Live Mascot" poll/thread/forum to gauge the level of interest from those on here. But only the students can really get the pulse of what's happening with their peers, so perhaps SGA can perform a poll as well, authorized by the Provost and administered in classes that would provide an appropriate cross-section of campus enrollment?

[Green P1]

We can't have live eagles cause the dumb birds would fly into our wind turbines.

[greenit]

Can't believe we killed 3 eagles. . .

But Craig James killed 5 hookers.