Syracuse University is the only university whose mascot started as a goat, became an Indian, had a quick flirtation with a Roman gladiator, and finally became a citrus fruit – namely a round orange called Otto.
Syracuse’s school colors started out as pink and pea green in 1872. In 1890, when intercollegiate athletics was in its infancy, the student body realized that colors associated with babies might not be the best choice. After researching other college and university colors, orange was chosen; while other schools used orange in combination with another color, no one used orange alone.
During the 2004-2005 academic year, the teams formerly known as the Syracuse Orangemen and Syracuse Orangewomen became collectively the Syracuse Orange.
Syracuse’s football venue, the concrete Archbold Stadium, opened in 1907. Vita the Goat was Syracuse’s first mascot and reigned during the 1920s. Vita attended games and often wore a sign imploring the Syracuse team to beat its opponent.
In 1931, an article published in The Syracuse Orange Peel, told of finding the remains of a 16th century Onondaga Indian chief in the excavations for a campus building. Soon, the Saltine Warrior, named for the salt deposits in the area and nicknamed Big Chief Bill Orange, became the mascot. The 1951 Senior Class commissioned a statue as a gift. Ivan Mestrovic, the famed Croatian sculptor, was on the faculty and a competition was held among his students. Luise Kaish’s design won.* An Onondaga Nation member posed for the statue that is still display on campus near the Shaffer Art Building.
For more than 40 years, a Lambda Chi Alpha member served as the Saltine Warrior. The tradition came about because a Lambda Chi’s father owned a cheerleading camp and made a costume for his son to wear.
Onkwehonwenha, a Native American student organization protested the use of the Saltine Warrior as a mascot in the late 1970s. Their voices were heard and the Indian was sidelined at the end of February 1978. That football season a Roman gladiator tried to fill the Saltine Warrior’s shoes. He failed miserably and was subjected to taunts and ridicule. After the fall 1978 football season, Archbold Stadium was demolished and replaced with the covered Carrier Dome.
In 1980, cheerleader Eric Heath designed and crafted a costume for an orange. It wasn’t an ordinary orange. It was an orange with “appeal.” For ten years, the orange was unnamed, although the people who wore them had named the costumes – the first was called “Clyde” and the second was “Woody.” When a third costume was made the cheerleaders came up with two possible names, “Opie” and “Otto.” Thinking that even a second-grader would naturally rhyme the former with “dopey,” the latter was chosen. It apparently fit the round orange colored citrus fruit like a glove.
In 1995, an 18-member committee was appointed to recommend a logo and mascot. The committee offered three choices – a lion, wolf, or the orange that was already in use. The committee recommended the wolf. A successful campaign by the students who had worn the orange costume led Chancellor Ken Shaw to name Otto as the official mascot in December 1995. Each year, students audition to wear the Otto costume. Two to six students are chosen.
And so this is the story of one of the more unusual college mascots. I hope Otto gets to lead the singing of all celebratory songs and all toasts with a citrus drink. Happy Birthday to my alma mater!
The Hall of Languages, 2010
*Mestrovic spent four months in jail as a political prisoner during the Italian Army’s occupation of Croatia in the early 1940s. A former student of his, Malvina Hoffman, helped persuade the Yugoslavian government to release him to the Vatican. After spending more than four months in jail, he was sent to Rome to work on several projects. Hoffman also had a hand in Chancellor William Tolley’s invitation to Mestrovic to teach at Syracuse. Mestrovic’s student, Luise Kaish, later taught at Columbia University.
© Fran Becque www.fraternityhistory.com
