Todd’s Take: What Could Possibly Be Wrong With An Indiana Bison Mascot?

It’s fun, and the video serves its purpose in making you wonder what Indiana athletics has planned.

Many have made the somewhat obvious inference that Indiana might be revealing a new mascot. Many of those also believe it might be a revival of Indiana’s long lost bison mascot.

Not that it’s tamped down guessing. The funniest comments I’ve seen referred to the hand that comes out of the box. Some pointed out that bison don’t have hands.

I respect the pedantic devotion to zoological accuracy, but let us also point out that bison also don’t hang around football gridirons, walk around on two legs or wear university branded gear. It’s a mascot, folks. Let your imagination run wild.

One reason many believe a revival of the bison mascot could be in the cards is some of the branding that Indiana football has teased. When Indiana revealed the order of its Big Ten games in December, it used bison imagery to tout the games.

I’ve always been Team Bring Back The Bison. I’d rather have a bison than some ham-fisted attempt to define a Hoosier. Indiana tried that in the late 1970s with the much-reviled Mr. Hoosier Pride, who was drop-kicked to the curb in short order.

While the bison mascot officially adopted in 1965 (the original, pictured above, is the stuff of nightmare fuel, but was quickly refined into something resembling a modern mascot) was described as cumbersome, hot, and strangely designed without eye holes – meaning a cheerleader had to lead the bison around the football field – I’ve always thought it looked cool in the 1960s and 1970s photos that circulate in the archives. 

Why a bison? Why not a bison? Many ask, understandably, what a bison has to do with Indiana or being a Hoosier. I like the dichotomy of Hoosiers questioning imagery that represents Indiana when no one knows specifically what a Hoosier is, but I digress.

Bison are part of Indiana’s past. They once roamed southern Indiana, and the path from the Falls of the Ohio to Vincennes was called Buffalo Trace.

The Buffalo Trace, which extended east into Kentucky and west into what became Illinois, served an important role in the settlement of Indiana in the early 1800s. So much so that a bison appears on Indiana’s state seal.

So there’s your bison connection. It’s no better or worse than how some other Big Ten mascots came to be. Wisconsin is the Badgers because early settlers were miners who were nicknamed “badgers” due to living in tunnels burrowed into the southwest Wisconsin hills. Minnesota is the Golden Gophers based on a political cartoon. Penn State is the “Nittany” Lions based on Mount Nittany near the Penn State campus.

It's also not unprecedented to have a mascot that doesn’t directly reflect the official nickname. Western Kentucky is arguably best known for its red blob mascot Big Red, which isn’t anything like what I’d think a Hilltopper would be. Tennessee has Smokey, a dog, for a team called the Volunteers. The Alabama Crimson Tide have an elephant. The Miami Hurricanes have an ibis.

I really don’t see a downside to a bison mascot for Indiana, but there is hardly a consensus among Indiana fans.

When we posted our story about the possibility of a bison mascot on Thursday, many of the social media comments were negative. Some fans either don’t want a bison or don’t want a mascot at all.

I don’t really get it. Why? What’s the harm in a mascot? What’s the animus to a big ole lovable bison?

Some fans think Indiana is unique for not having a mascot, but that’s a fallacy. They’re not even unique within the conference. Michigan has never had an official anthropomorphic Wolverine mascot that I’m aware of (there was briefly an unofficial one in the 1980s), and Illinois hasn’t had a mascot since Chief Illiniwek was retired in the 2000s.

Even if Indiana had carved out some unique identity, what kind of hill is that to die on? We don’t need no stinkin’ mascots? That’s, well, kind of joyless.

No one is going to be rolling in their grave if Indiana were to introduce a mascot. I can’t think how a mascot would hurt anyone. Martha The Mop Lady? They can co-exist.

In the case of a bison, you could go either way with how you depict him. A fierce, intimidating brute stalking the sideline, or a cutesy, friendly gentle giant. Either works for the main target demographic for mascots.

Kids. A mascot is the best gateway to identify your brand with children. I grew up in Wisconsin, and Bucky Badger was iconic growing up. I covered Indiana State, and while no one knows what on God’s green earth Sycamore Sam is, kids adore him anyway.

There’s also the small matter of the merchandising dollars Indiana is leaving on the table by not having a mascot. You can pick any example across the world of Division I to understand the branding benefit. My son just graduated from Ball State, and there are Charlie Cardinal stuffed animals at every outlet you can buy Ball State gear.

A mascot provides an additional revenue stream for Indiana. The introduction of a mascot would be a one-time boost to the bottom line as fans would buy up stuffed animals and mascot-themed gear.

I don’t see an issue with a bison. I dig it. The confusion on the connection to Indiana? It can be used as a teaching moment to educate people about Indiana’s past.

I don’t see a downside to a mascot. It’s harmless fun. Long live the bison … or whatever is growling in that box.