December 2nd, 2005
There’s an animal motif or two for every season. Looks like the modern version of connecting with nature is wearing it on your shirt. Horses made an appearance everywhere from the Chloe runway to the shelves at Urban Outfitters. Deer (and antlers) showed up on everything from blank books and stationary to light fixtures. A variety of bird motifs have also flown our way, most recently owls. 
What creature will be next? I’ll put my clams on seahorses. Most accurately described as…well, strange looking, they’re just odd enough to catch on. The texture of their skin just begs to be co-opted for use as ornament/pattern. I’m excited to sport a species on my chest in which the males are the ones to give birth.
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Seahorese are cool because the males carry the eggs around and take care of the babies.
And they have that ridiculously small back fin which flutters uncontrollably. My favorite species have crazy branchlike protruberances and are called sea dragons. Here’s one: http://www.tnaqua.org/Membership/Photo_Gallery/Sea_Dragon.jpg
I think the last time I’ve worn an animal on my shirt was in college - we were the Wildcats (Davidson). One of my favorite tees was a conference championship shirt that sported a roaring wildcat about a foot in width. It’s great. Why are there no seahorse or sea dragon mascots? And what the heck is Brown’s mascot anyway? Something lame and brown I’m sure.
Lions and tigers and bears are all so typical. Yes, Brown’s mascot is brown and is a bear. Though my alma mater is far from lame its mascot is far from being as visually interesting as a sea dragon would be. So shall it be the Brown Banshees or the Brown Piranhas?
The school across the street from Brown (my alma) doesn’t really have a mascot—I guess its hockey team name is the closest thing they’ve got: The Nads. Definitively lame… but potentially even worse: The Flying Paintbrushes. The Immovable Clay. The Molten Glass. The Sharpened Serifs….
RISD sells shirts that read “Go Nads.” How jr high. Reminicent of the tasteless Coed Naked and Big Johnson brands. I think you’ve got something with Sharpened Serifs though…reeks of danger.
Maybe sometime soon we’ll see a seahorse with antlers…I’m on it.
Two of the best…Salisbury University “Seagulls” (I was a proud cross country running Gull) and the University of Delaware “Fighting Blue Hens”.
Coming across a family vacation photograph from ca. 1980 reminded me of another less-than-appropriate mascot. I was wearing the tshirt from my park district soccer team: The Tan Wombats. Honest. I think it was probably some parent’s misguided attempt to educate us about the fauna of the Australian continent, but come on, a burrowing herbivorous marsupial? And that most savage of colors: Tan? I understand that there are not many fierce carnivores in Australia, but the Tasmanian Devil did come to mind.