Roanoke College is searching for a mascot to go along with its traditional school namesake and athletic colors, the Maroons, and they’re not afraid to have fun with it.

"We’re hopeful that over the next several months… [we’ll] put a face to the name, the vision, of Roanoke College," athletic director Scott Allison said. The school, along with local company ***Abeedle.com, created a Web site, www.ClassicCollege.com, where anyone can post an idea for RC’s future mascot.

A century ago, the intramural baseball team ended up using maroon uniforms instead of yellow and blue, the school’s academic colors. The Brackety-Ack, the school’s newspaper, began calling the team the Maroons, and it stuck. According to the Web site, mascot ideas for RC that didn’t make it included the Daisies, the Express, Harry (a living mascot from the 1930s), the Alert, and the Lutherans.

Within the past month, the college posted 11 "rejected" ideas in video form to get the mascot discussion rolling. With names like "Agatha, Princess of the Night," "The Roanoke Rassler," and "The Roanoke Klingon," the "rejected" videos have been posted on YouTube as well as on ClassicCollege. (You can find links in our previous coverage.)

***Correction: Abeedle.com assisted Roanoke College in its search for a mascot and the site www.ClassicCollege.com. New City Media is involved with a redesign of the college's main web site at www.roanoke.edu .

Betsy Foster of Salem, who plays the peace and love person, is a junior transfer from Lenoir-Rhyne. She said, "It’s neat to be promoting school spirit for a school and I’m new here." M.D. Espinosa even learned a new language for his role in "The Roanoke Klingon" in just two days.

Ideas will be accepted until October 1. The Mascot Team will choose five of the most popular, and those rated the most classic and fierce, and submit them to Roanoke College President Mike Maxey. Until then, ideas can be submitted to www.ClassicCollege.com. Pictures of ideas and videos of "auditions" can also be uploaded to the site.

Some of the most recent ideas were The Maroon Dragoons, the Maroons (with a red-tailed hawk as the mascot), and the Maroon Tycoons.

— Miranda Adkins

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• Posted by dwayne yancey in Schools and education
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