Hi, or should I be formal and say Hello? When one is not addressing other kangaroos, it is sometimes difficult to know the correct salutation. But from what I was able to learn from my brief visit to the Colby campus, I guess Hi covers just about everything. I must admit that I am having some trouble getting knee socks to fit me. When I go into Astor and ask for a pair, the sales girl gives me the oddest stare. I have the same trouble with Bermudas, but if I am going to live on the campus I want to look like the rest of the girls. Are the beds comfortable? I have the hardest time explaining to my friends the rather extraordinary habit you girls have of putting your animals on your beds all day, and on the floor all night. Does the SPCA know about this? I do hope we can become friends. When I went to Long Tail Teachers College my roommate used to get As on the French tests she never studied for either. So you see, we can talk if you have problems. Well, I must hop along. I have more packing to do. Junior sends his love, and wants to know if he can take a sunbath behind Burpee, too?
By the early 1960s, although students could still buy the kangaroo in the college bookstore, its origins had disappeared into speculation. A newspaper plea for information on the kangaroo’s history was left unanswered, and soon its role as the college’s mascot faded into memory, leaving the college without a mascot once again. In 1975, Colby Junior College evolved into a four-year institution with a new name and identity. One of Colby-Sawyer College’s first orders of business was to decide on a school mascot, and the college chose the Charger. Chargers were medieval war horses, but the exact origins of the Colby-Sawyer Charger remain a mystery. The 1981 student newspaper first mentioned the Chargers and, from that point forward, sports teams began to be referred to as the Chargers. The Charger mascot has persevered through coeducation and into the new millennium. In 2012, as the college developed a new visual identity, it decided to update the Charger logo to depict action and forward motion. This fall, history repeated itself. The sentiment expressed so long ago by the Kearsarge Beacon that “expense would be at a minimum and the gain would be long lasting” came back around when the college installed the Charger statue that now stands proudly in front of Hogan Sports Center and is called Victor. ® If you have information on why Colby-Sawyer selected the Charger as its mascot, contact Archivist Kelli Bogan at kbogan@colby-sawyer.edu.
Your loving mascot, Colby and X (Junior cannot write yet)
spring 2015
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