MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[TitansIWU]

After looking into it a little further, it looks like a firm out of Milwaukee is claiming credit for making the Wheaton Mastodon suit.

http://www.olympusgrp.com/Mascot/Mascot-Costume-Gallery.htm

Once you get to the page, you have to click on elephants in order to see "Tor" in both his football gear and his everyday wear.

This brings up a whole new issue in my mind. If the very manufacturer of the costume chooses to list the mastodon under the "elephants" category, they must hold the belief that the modern day elephant EVOLVED from the mastodon.

If the "crusader" was rejected, it seems that the mastodon as a choice might give the impression that Wheaton, as an institution, believes in the theory of evolution...Wait! What?

Mmmmh, admittedly, I have too much time on my hands tonight.

GO CCIW!!!!

GO TITANS!
GO CARDS!
GO MASTODONS!

[Hoosier Titan]

From wikipedia...

The school's mascot was changed from the Crusaders to the Thunder in 2000, as the image of a mounted Crusader was deemed potentially offensive and reminiscent of a controversial period in Christian history. The change was noted in the national press, and some alumni objected to the change. Other suggestions for a new mascot name that were rejected included the Mastodons — a reference to Perry Mastodon, which is a mastodon skeleton that was dug up nearby and is now on display on the college campus in the brand new science building. While still known as the "Thunder", in 2010 the mascot was officially changed to a mastodon named "Tor Thunder" to integrate the official and unofficial mascots.[35]

Not sure if this is accurate, but either way, from now on, I am calling them the Wheaton Mastodons.

I think this is a difference between what is defined as a mascot.  Wheaton's official mascot, or team name, is the Thunder.  Wheaton's mascot (much to my chagrin and Sager's delight), or character that roams the sidelines, is a mastodon named Tor.  I personally am against Tor, but they also didn't ask me about it.   

Does Tor look anything like a giant stuffed banana?  I didn't see any mastodons the last time we were at Wheaton, but I was in close proximity to said banana briefly.

[NCF]

After looking into it a little further, it looks like a firm out of Milwaukee is claiming credit for making the Wheaton Mastodon suit.

http://www.olympusgrp.com/Mascot/Mascot-Costume-Gallery.htm

Once you get to the page, you have to click on elephants in order to see "Tor" in both his football gear and his everyday wear.

This brings up a whole new issue in my mind. If the very manufacturer of the costume chooses to list the mastodon under the "elephants" category, they must hold the belief that the modern day elephant EVOLVED from the mastodon.

If the "crusader" was rejected, it seems that the mastodon as a choice might give the impression that Wheaton, as an institution, believes in the theory of evolution...Wait! What?

Mmmmh, admittedly, I have too much time on my hands tonight.

GO CCIW!!!!

GO TITANS!
GO CARDS!
GO MASTODONS!

It will be worth getting to work early to check this out.

[NCF]

Football and everday wear!? Outfits for an elephant?Maybe they can bring him to SoDup next fall and we can have a the mascots do the punt, pass and kick half-time competition. LOL

[kenoshamark]

For those wondering, the site was launched (relaunched, really) in November 1997. The board launched a year later.

Any original posters still around?

If you hover over a poster's name on the left side, you'll see a number at the end (u=xxxxxx). The lower the number, the more original the poster. My admin handle is 1, my regular posting handle is 6, Warren Thompson is 7, Greg Sager is 27, hopefan is 62.

Greg -- Bob is poster 310. He might have had a previous handle?

He might have. But if he did, I don't remember it.

Perhaps you gave him some demerits, or docked him a few places for some infraction or other.

Funny story... Pat had one of my "posts" used as the quote on the front of the message boards for several years! Back then, we were more rivals then colleagues!

And wow - I am #325!

I'm surprised you're that low, D-Mac, although, if my demerits theory holds up, it would make perfect sense that you're not in the elite double-digits category.

Other long-time CCIW posters:

Jim Matson - 15
74impala - 65 (sorry I didn't mention ya, Rodney!)
WheatonC - 67
dennis_prikkel - 100 (he's much lower than I thought he'd be; did you just lurk at first, Dennis?)
tjcummingsfan -125 (possibly our first-ever student poster ... hey, EH! You're a celebrity!)
mr_b - 290 (now mostly seen in the CCIW baseball room)
iwu70 - 312 (which means that I've had to hear about that 1970 chicken game approximately 4,000 times by now )
Mr. ypsi - 394
rknuppel - 402 (our first All-American poster)
augiefan - 453
iwufans -477
titanhammer - 482
mwunder - 487
iwumichigander -495
robberki - 527
veterancciwfan - 542
wheels81 - 565 (formerly known as bgbully)
mactitan -618
markerickson - 666 (hahahahahahahahaha!)
kenoshamark - 669

Another early poster was Stat Jack, who was Jason Wiertel's father, Jack Wiertel. Every year he and K-Mark used to bet a case of beer over which one of them would finish higher in the CCIW pick'ems.

Greg, 

I had nearly forgotten that yearly wager.   But, to set the record straight, I have yet to collect on any of those cases of beer that Jack owed me.   Haven't heard from Jack in years but had many good times with him !!

April, nice to have you posting again.

[Stagg Again!!]

After looking into it a little further, it looks like a firm out of Milwaukee is claiming credit for making the Wheaton Mastodon suit.

http://www.olympusgrp.com/Mascot/Mascot-Costume-Gallery.htm

Once you get to the page, you have to click on elephants in order to see "Tor" in both his football gear and his everyday wear.

This brings up a whole new issue in my mind. If the very manufacturer of the costume chooses to list the mastodon under the "elephants" category, they must hold the belief that the modern day elephant EVOLVED from the mastodon.

If the "crusader" was rejected, it seems that the mastodon as a choice might give the impression that Wheaton, as an institution, believes in the theory of evolution...Wait! What?

Mmmmh, admittedly, I have too much time on my hands tonight.

GO CCIW!!!!

GO TITANS!
GO CARDS!
GO MASTODONS!

Thanks for the post TitansIWU.  I just spent the last 15 minutes of my life looking at some of the silliest mascots (who'd have known that Ensure had its own mascot!!).  While the classics (Dig 'Em, Tony the Tiger, Charlie, and Twinkie the Kid) are clearly the best, I did like Beer Glass and Cayenne. 

How many Crusaders will it take to wear the Tor/Mastodon suit?? 

#27,263

[diehardfan]

HI K-MARK!!! Nice to see you around too

Eh, only for the first 19 years of my life.  It's not like I grew up there (oh... wait...).  But it was, like, totally across town...

I did go to Crusader camp... and then I did work whatever it morphed into when the Crusaders became the Thunder. 

I don't think it was "Thunder camp."  That sounds like meteorology.

Hah, I am very impressed with the random details I remember about your life, haha...

diehardfan,

That is a classic reason for joining the board!

It's like Donnie Brasco!

from IMdb...

Donnie Brasco: An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and finds himself identifying more with the mafia life to the expense of his regular one.

I think it's more like Stockholm syndrome. Hahahaha 

I think Q feels otherwise.

My only beef with Chuck (aka Mr. Ypsi) has really been when, early in the season, he'd start laying out his odds of IWU either a) going undefeated, or b) getting to Salem, or something like that.   

He can be a bit of a Public Relations challenge for IWU fans.

That was all the fault of the excitable cabonney - Mr. Ypsi has mellowed considerably in recent years!

This a seriously impressive usage of more than one third person references. Dissassociative multiple personalities much?

Q, I think you are too hard on Chuck. I can say things like that and not only would people still take me seriously and still like Wheaton, it definitely wouldn't negatively affect anyone's opinions of other posters from my college.

For example....the afternoon I found myself researching the history of The Belt (sorry, don't know the trick for the tm).

Oh man, I thought about trying to figure out all the memes they have in that thread, and then I just gave up. I'll just keep pretending that the "Best Attendance" board is the cool place to be. 

Stat of the day...

* On Tuesday 3/6 and Wednesday 3/7 (through 4:00pm CST), there have been 96 total posts on the CCIW board.

* This basketball season (since Nov 15, 2011), there have been 93 total posts on the UAA board.

nerd

OMG, that's our mascot now? I am so ashamed.

[Mr. Ypsi]

April, cabonney takes issue with whatever it was you said, but Mr. Ypsi is cool with it!

The part of the quote you didn't copy (Mr. Y mellowed out by running the PP), has been fascinating.  I've been worried because I can't seem to get a good cross-section of voters (geographically) - I worried about 'homerism'.  If anything, the problem seems to be the reverse!  Voters (mostly) seem so prone to not be homers that they downgrade their own (or local) teams!  There have been 3 Hope voters (though only 1 with regularity) and a Calvin voter - NONE of them has ever voted Hope #1 (even when they finished there the last 3 polls).  My position for IWU was below the voter 'consensus' more often than not.  The closest to a 'homer' vote may be Hugenerd putting MIT #1, but that is a perfectly defensible vote, and I don't think he was ever the ONLY #1 vote for them.  Seeing the voting is well worth the effort put in to tally and post the voting.

[izzy stradlin]

This brings up a whole new issue in my mind. If the very manufacturer of the costume chooses to list the mastodon under the "elephants" category, they must hold the belief that the modern day elephant EVOLVED from the mastodon.

If the "crusader" was rejected, it seems that the mastodon as a choice might give the impression that Wheaton, as an institution, believes in the theory of evolution...Wait! What?

Actually, Good pickup.  Yes, Wheaton does not dismiss evolution.   Differing from some Christian institutions, Wheaton takes the sciences very seriously and anyone who does this knows the bible is not a scientific book. 

[magicman]

The closest to a 'homer' vote may be Hugenerd putting MIT #1, but that is a perfectly defensible vote, and I don't think he was ever the ONLY #1 vote for them. 

That sounds like you just "outed" Hugenerd. I don't ever remember him claiming that he had MIT #1 in is poll. Glad to hear that he's a homer though.

[Titan Q]

On the IWU/Wooster game...

http://www.the-daily-record.com/news/article/5165522

[NCF]

OMG, that's our mascot now? I am so ashamed.

And I thought that tacky, old Cardinal costume was lame

(modified by GS for formatting, and because I didn't say that.)

[matblake]

USee is a freaking institution over on the Football boards, actually the thought of him not being there is pretty depressing.

USee and I are probably two of only a handful of CCIW football room readers left who remember the epic snark wars between the Mad Swede and TitanBooster ... or the hilarious non-sequitur adventures of Augustana head football coach Schmitty Torkelson in those brief, two-sentence gems by Attaboy Augie.

Both of those guys were around when I first started, although the wars had pretty much settled down into battles by that time before diminishing to a skirmish or two.   You could tell it had been much more "interesting" previously. 

[NCF]

USee is a freaking institution over on the Football boards, actually the thought of him not being there is pretty depressing.

USee and I are probably two of only a handful of CCIW football room readers left who remember the epic snark wars between the Mad Swede and TitanBooster ... or the hilarious non-sequitur adventures of Augustana head football coach Schmitty Torkelson in those brief, two-sentence gems by Attaboy Augie.

Both of those guys were around when I first started, although the wars had pretty much settled down into battles by that time before diminishing to a skirmish or two.   You could tell it had been much more "interesting" previously.

There are not many "battles" anymore except during big game weeks, especially on the football board.

(modified by GS for formatting)

[TitansIWU]

This brings up a whole new issue in my mind. If the very manufacturer of the costume chooses to list the mastodon under the "elephants" category, they must hold the belief that the modern day elephant EVOLVED from the mastodon.

If the "crusader" was rejected, it seems that the mastodon as a choice might give the impression that Wheaton, as an institution, believes in the theory of evolution...Wait! What?

Actually, Good pickup.  Yes, Wheaton does not dismiss evolution.   Differing from some Christian institutions, Wheaton takes the sciences very seriously and anyone who does this knows the bible is not a scientific book.

Interesting... I will have to read further into this.