2008 Woodie Awards
Why Muskie as Mascot?
A detailed look at our beloved mascot
Brian Moser and Paul Davis
Issue date: 12/10/03 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 1
Imagine you are a squirrel harvesting acorns near a river. You are happily gathering the acorns on a branch about two inches over the river. Suddenly a muskie explodes out of the water and consumes you, drowning your miniscule body. This is why we do not play Mary Baldwin College of Staunton, Virginia, their team being the Squirrels.
Curiosity killed the squirrel, so we decided to be curious too, without the killing part. We wanted to know more about our ferocious fishy friend, so we looked up information on the muskie.
The muskie's actual name is muskellunge. It is native to the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and Mississippi river basins. It is also found in the far eastern parts of North America from Quebec to Georgia. It is Wisconsin's state fish, which should make us at least mildly proud of our Friday fish fry.
Muskies can easily way up to 50 pounds. The official world record setting Muskellunge was caught in Wisconsin's Chippewa Flowage. It weighed 69 pounds, just a few pounds short of playing linebacker for us! There are also reports on the St. Lawrence River in New York of muskie that weighed 80 to 100 pounds, but there was no verification of the catch.
If that wasn't enough to make you proud of our mascot, they are the most difficult fresh water fish to willfully catch in North America. A fable calls it, "The fish of ten thousand casts," and it takes an average of 25 hours to catch on a premier muskie lake, which is fitting because the approximate time to find our campus is about 25 hours. Hence, it would take the same amount of time to catch a muskie as it does to catch a Lakeland student.
Unlike our students, well most of them, Muskies are vicious. Aside from the occasional human bite, the muskie feeds on perch, walleye, bass and even ducks and muskrats. There may be a few exceptions, but our mascot feeds on most other mascots. Other colleges should cower in fear of our needle-sharp teeth that could pierce their game plan and pride.
Even the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wisconsin portrays the symbolic strength of the muskie. It has a four story tall replica of the mighty fish, showing just how fierce it is from within.
Our football team has ways of showing our fiercity with an underground end zone dance known as the "ugly fish," which oddly enough, is the Indian translation for the fish. I guess even the Lakeland students have the muskie roots deep within their hearts.
We should show our appreciation for the muskellunge; any other mascot just wouldn't have the bite that we need.
Curiosity killed the squirrel, so we decided to be curious too, without the killing part. We wanted to know more about our ferocious fishy friend, so we looked up information on the muskie.
The muskie's actual name is muskellunge. It is native to the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, and Mississippi river basins. It is also found in the far eastern parts of North America from Quebec to Georgia. It is Wisconsin's state fish, which should make us at least mildly proud of our Friday fish fry.
Muskies can easily way up to 50 pounds. The official world record setting Muskellunge was caught in Wisconsin's Chippewa Flowage. It weighed 69 pounds, just a few pounds short of playing linebacker for us! There are also reports on the St. Lawrence River in New York of muskie that weighed 80 to 100 pounds, but there was no verification of the catch.
If that wasn't enough to make you proud of our mascot, they are the most difficult fresh water fish to willfully catch in North America. A fable calls it, "The fish of ten thousand casts," and it takes an average of 25 hours to catch on a premier muskie lake, which is fitting because the approximate time to find our campus is about 25 hours. Hence, it would take the same amount of time to catch a muskie as it does to catch a Lakeland student.
Unlike our students, well most of them, Muskies are vicious. Aside from the occasional human bite, the muskie feeds on perch, walleye, bass and even ducks and muskrats. There may be a few exceptions, but our mascot feeds on most other mascots. Other colleges should cower in fear of our needle-sharp teeth that could pierce their game plan and pride.
Even the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wisconsin portrays the symbolic strength of the muskie. It has a four story tall replica of the mighty fish, showing just how fierce it is from within.
Our football team has ways of showing our fiercity with an underground end zone dance known as the "ugly fish," which oddly enough, is the Indian translation for the fish. I guess even the Lakeland students have the muskie roots deep within their hearts.
We should show our appreciation for the muskellunge; any other mascot just wouldn't have the bite that we need.