No Riptide

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DrHullabaloo
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No Riptide

Post by DrHullabaloo »

Another thing to complain about in our litany of complaints online.

There's no Riptide for the foreseeable future due to nobody accepting the position. Other than emails, I am wondering what outreach happens to get somebody to be the mascot? We have had two Greenie Gals be mascot in the past, as adults - not as students.

Most schools, it's a scholarship. Do we even offer a stipend to do it???

There's a student activities fair on Saturday in Devlin, if I were marketing department I would set up at a table and see if someone is interested.

My .02
Last edited by DrHullabaloo on Tue Sep 11, 2018 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by Baywave1 »

Thanks for the background. Friends who went to the game with me Saturday noted Riptide was MIA.

I wildly guessed he had been formally replaced by Blaine Kern smaller AW on plaza in front of the stadium.

Costume looks awfully hot. Maybe RipT will reappear for basketball?
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PeteRasche
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Re: No Riptide

Post by PeteRasche »

Baywave1 wrote:Costume looks awfully hot. Maybe RipT will reappear for basketball?
Well not if no one has signed up...
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Re: No Riptide

Post by windywave »

If they'd kept the name pecker....
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Re: No Riptide

Post by austxwave »

I find it hard to believe with 6500 undergrads and another 4-5,000 grad students, there aren't any students qualified and willing.

However, if there isn't someone...how about spending the money and hire whomever does the Baby Cakes mascotting (the person in the costume). Clearly they could use the money on the side. If not there, how about recruiting at Loyola or UNO or Dillard or Xavier or SUNO or Delgado.

We can't as a university accept not having a mascot at our sports events.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by windywave »

austxwave wrote:I find it hard to believe with 6500 undergrads and another 4-5,000 grad students, there aren't any students qualified and willing.
However, if there isn't someone...how about spending the money and hire whomever does the Baby Cakes mascotting (the person in the costume). Clearly they could use the money on the side. If not there, how about recruiting at Loyola or UNO or Dillard or Xavier or SUNO or Delgado.

We can't as a university accept not having a mascot at our sports events.
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DrHullabaloo
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Re: No Riptide

Post by DrHullabaloo »

austxwave wrote:I find it hard to believe with 6500 undergrads and another 4-5,000 grad students, there aren't any students qualified and willing.

However, if there isn't someone...how about spending the money and hire whomever does the Baby Cakes mascotting (the person in the costume). Clearly they could use the money on the side. If not there, how about recruiting at Loyola or UNO or Dillard or Xavier or SUNO or Delgado.

We can't as a university accept not having a mascot at our sports events.
One of our Greenie Gals is a certified Mascot Trainer with the Universal Cheerleaders Association. She has trained mascots for other schools and at their national conference. She served as Riptide as needed a few times a few years ago.

I remember seeing either a facebook post or an email circulate around last year about trying to find a Riptide, but unless there's some stipend money behind it or a bonafide scholarship or something students are not going to do this for free. That costume is ghastly hot.

The other thing is that students don't read emails, so if they are serious about recruiting someone - it's gotta be more than some facebook posts and circulating an email. Have they gone to talk to the kids involved in Spark or Tower&Crescent or Greenwave Ambassadors? Have they done a table at student activities expo? I don't know, so I'm just speculating.

There are so many to do's on our list of things to do as an athletic department, that I'm sure focusing on the mascot is #999 on 1000 things to do. It's a shame and I wish it were different. When I win the lottery endowing a student scholarship for a mascot is one of my main priorities, next to adding a nice masonry entrance along Claiborne that counter balances the impressive view of Gibson Circle (I shall never utter it as "Schmowen Circle").

But it's just silly to me that they are currently recruiting kids for "Riptide Kids Club" and yet there is no actual Riptide at the moment.
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PeteRasche
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Re: No Riptide

Post by PeteRasche »

While I fully believe everything you wrote, Dr, it makes me sad that not one Tulane student cares enough to do it. Do our cheerleaders get any scholarship money? I was always under the impression that they do, and Riptide would be a cheerleader. I know some of our former Gumbys, I'll ask them what they got.

We wanna be P5? Find me a P5 school where students wouldn't practically pay the school for the chance to be the mascot. And we can't find anyone who gives a cr*p... :oops:
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Re: No Riptide

Post by windywave »

PeteRasche wrote:While I fully believe everything you wrote, Dr, it makes me sad that not one Tulane student cares enough to do it. Do our cheerleaders get any scholarship money? I was always under the impression that they do, and Riptide would be a cheerleader. I know some of our former Gumbys, I'll ask them what they got.

We wanna be P5? Find me a P5 school where students wouldn't practically pay the school for the chance to be the mascot. And we can't find anyone who gives a cr*p... :oops:
they're too busy doing community service
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Re: No Riptide

Post by PeteRasche »

windywave wrote:
PeteRasche wrote:While I fully believe everything you wrote, Dr, it makes me sad that not one Tulane student cares enough to do it. Do our cheerleaders get any scholarship money? I was always under the impression that they do, and Riptide would be a cheerleader. I know some of our former Gumbys, I'll ask them what they got.

We wanna be P5? Find me a P5 school where students wouldn't practically pay the school for the chance to be the mascot. And we can't find anyone who gives a cr*p... :oops:
they're too busy doing community service
I didn't really think I needed to bother writing it.

And no pink was needed, either.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by Baywave1 »

DrHullabaloo wrote:
There are so many to do's on our list of things to do as an athletic department, that I'm sure focusing on the mascot is #999 on 1000 things to do. It's a shame and I wish it were different. When I win the lottery endowing a student scholarship for a mascot is one of my main priorities, next to adding a nice masonry entrance along Claiborne that counter balances the impressive view of Gibson Circle (I shall never utter it as "Schmowen Circle").
Dr. H, Someone at our peer institution of USC beat you to it.

https://news.usc.edu/24263/Couple-Endow ... t-Program/


$ 2 million for a horse but not a dollar for our bird........


P.S., Kudos to your colleague stepping up to do it but I have to admit that's a specialty I didn't know existed: "mascot trainer." Back in the day, it was "Here is your outfit and all the beer you can drink. Now go win the game." It worked. Occasionally.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by Baywave1 »

PeteRasche wrote:While I fully believe everything you wrote, Dr, it makes me sad that not one Tulane student cares enough to do it. Do our cheerleaders get any scholarship money? I was always under the impression that they do, and Riptide would be a cheerleader. I know some of our former Gumbys, I'll ask them what they got.

I thought Orleans Parish had a law that all former Gumby's after their service were automatically enrolled in witness protection program and thus uncontactaable. Do I live in the wrong city?
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Re: No Riptide

Post by Yankeewave »

Those costumes are really, really hot. People i know at big ten schools say the mascots are always drunk. Seems not so fun in NOLA heat
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Re: No Riptide

Post by sr »

Incentivize it until you've got a few Riptides. Is a $100 too little per game, then advertise at $225 per game. for 6 games you pick-up $1350. Can't have a Riptide Kids Club with no Riptide.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by PeteRasche »

Yankeewave wrote:Those costumes are really, really hot. People i know at big ten schools say the mascots are always drunk. Seems not so fun in NOLA heat
Yet we've had it for decades and decades. So either someone is making an excuse, the younger generation are truly snowflakes, or we've successfully driven out every last inkling of sports interest from the student body we recruit.

I'll go ahead and speak for windy who will say "all of the above".
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Re: No Riptide

Post by Yankeewave »

I suspect kids used to do it for fun or because it showed involvement in school for grad school apps. I do agree academia is more likely to reward someone for volunteering than this, which might be the problem.
Im still surprised that not one person wouod do it. I dont know who did it when i was in svhool, but they had lots of events. I was a tourguide and riptide came to the huge saturday tours.

Id reward a person willing to do it with meals at bruff or gift cards
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Re: No Riptide

Post by tulaneoutlaw »

Shouldn't this count as volunteering/community service if they aren't getting paid or otherwise compensated? I've seen some pretty lame excuses for community service in my day. It seems like entertaining children out in the heat would more than count.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by sr »

Yeah, believe Texas has at least 4 girls or guys that each do a quarter with their overstuffed Longhorn suit. Bevo is great just hangs in his corner of the stadium and munches on hay. Maybe Tulane can train a pelican to hang around, not poop excessively and do cute things … I guess fish breath wouldn't be a plus, though.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by Johnny Mac »

can someone explain to me how the fudge the lowest person on the totem pole for student employees in the athletic department isn't in the suit? "Sorry son, but you have to do more than just make copies to earn your 8 bucks an hour!"

Seriously, though.. I would imagine a student employee in the AD would love to make an extra $100 bucks a game to run around as Riptide. In addition to a free, expense paid trip to all our road football games.

here's some unsolicited "trivia" for you... last year at the upset of UMBC over Virginia, we were of course focused on UMBC's dance team during time outs... they actually would switch out the person in the "Retriever" costume for their big dance numbers that included the dog.. one of the dance team members would take over and then run under the stands and switch back with the mascot person...maybe it's even the lowest cheerleader on the totem pole putting on the suit!
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Re: No Riptide

Post by tulaneoutlaw »

sr wrote:Yeah, believe Texas has at least 4 girls or guys that each do a quarter with their overstuffed Longhorn suit. Bevo is great just hangs in his corner of the stadium and munches on hay. Maybe Tulane can train a pelican to hang around, not poop excessively and do cute things … I guess fish breath wouldn't be a plus, though.
I would love to see a trained pelican. We shouldn't stop at training it to do cute things. Why not train it to fly around the stadium a la War Eagle.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by Johnny Mac »

tulaneoutlaw wrote:I would love to see a trained pelican. We shouldn't stop at training it to do cute things. Why not train it to fly around the stadium a la War Eagle.
then dive into a huge rolling tank of water to eat a fish with the other team's logo on it... we get the in stadium steady cam to get a close up on the screen... release riptide and he/she dive bombs and eats the fish!!
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Re: No Riptide

Post by gerryb323 »

Johnny Mac wrote:
tulaneoutlaw wrote:I would love to see a trained pelican. We shouldn't stop at training it to do cute things. Why not train it to fly around the stadium a la War Eagle.
then dive into a huge rolling tank of water to eat a fish with the other team's logo on it... we get the in stadium steady cam to get a close up on the screen... release riptide and he/she dive bombs and eats the fish!!
Forget the steadycam, strap a camera to the bird's head!
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Re: No Riptide

Post by PeteRasche »

Johnny Mac wrote:
tulaneoutlaw wrote:I would love to see a trained pelican. We shouldn't stop at training it to do cute things. Why not train it to fly around the stadium a la War Eagle.
then dive into a huge rolling tank of water to eat a fish with the other team's logo on it... we get the in stadium steady cam to get a close up on the screen... release riptide and he/she dive bombs and eats the fish!!
Our student body would injure each other trying to be the first one to file the complaint to PETA.
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Re: No Riptide

Post by windywave »

PeteRasche wrote:
Yankeewave wrote:Those costumes are really, really hot. People i know at big ten schools say the mascots are always drunk. Seems not so fun in NOLA heat
Yet we've had it for decades and decades. So either someone is making an excuse, the younger generation are truly snowflakes, or we've successfully driven out every last inkling of sports interest from the student body we recruit.

I'll go ahead and speak for windy who will say "all of the above".
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Re: No Riptide

Post by NJwave »

Personally, I loved the inflatable/deflatable Riptide from years past. Kids adored it. I might be wrong, but I believe they stopped using it because there was an incident where it was caught on the field and they couldn't deflate it.

In the old days, schools could have used it as a form of punishment. Miss a block in practice and you are Riptide this week. Can't sink a free throw. Three suicides and a mascot uniform. What do you mean you can't throw strikes? Riptide.
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