With my beloved alma mater making it into the sweet sixteen of the NCAA tournament, I’ve heard the question many times, both directed to me and thrown about the media: What exactly his a Hilltopper and what’s the deal with the red blob.
One thing to note first off is the difference between a “nickname” and a “mascot.” The nickname is what a team is called, such as the Western Kentucky “Hilltoppers” or the Iowa State “Cyclones” or the Kentucky “Wildcats.” The mascot is the character, typically that runs around and does stunts at the game. Generally speaking, the mascot is based on the nickname, but that is not always the case.
Western Kentucky is known as the “Hilltoppers.” This is likely due to the fact that the campus is on the top of a large hill. Legend has it that the school started at the bottom of the hill, but the founder, Henry Hardin Cherry, thought it would be poignant to have the campus located at the top of the hill. So, one day, they moved, with each student carrying a piece of furniture, they marched to the top of the hill to the new campus. Since then, the campus has expanded, gradually moving towards the bottom of the hill on the other side of campus. Now it is convieniently designed to where most of the dorms* are located at the bottom of the hill and the academic buildings are at the top of the hill, meaning that each day, Western Kentucky students truely are hilltoppers and have to climb a hill every day walking to class.
The mascot, who is a giant red blob, is simply called Big Red. If you watch enough ESPN, you’ve seen Big Red before, as he appears on many a SportsCenter commercial. Big Red was designed in the late 1970’s. Since it’s really difficult to convey visually what a “Hilltopper” might look like, the person commissioned to design the mascot didn’t even try. Captain Caveman was used to come up with some of the early prototypes. So, Big Red really, truely is “nothing.” Just a big red blob. I think he (or she) is pretty cool, though.
Filed under: sports | Tagged: big red, college basketball, Hilltoppers, March Madness, mascots, NCAA Tournament, Western Kentucky University
[...] about the media: What exactly his a Hilltopper and what’s the deal with the red blob. … credit : [...]
[...] Go Hilltoppers. And, in case you are wondering what a hilltopper is, you can check out my post from last year on the topic. It is the most read post on my [...]