Mustangsabu wrote:I'm sorry, someone is going to have to explain the outflowing of condemnation of the horses displayed on Saturday to me using small words. The symbol of SMU is not a shetland pony. It is a nationally recognized emblem of a Mustang. We have, through the first almost 100 years of the university's existence, never had an actual Mustang of our own. How can anyone complain when the opportunity to be represented by a flesh and blood example of the emblem we have taken pride in since 1917 when we picked it?
Ok, so I will answer my own question to a certain extent: 15 years after we became the Mustangs someone dressed up a shetland pony, called it Peruna, and a tradition was born. This animal became the mascot of the SMU Football team, arguably the University as a whole although Peruna does not feature at anything except Football games in my experience. I fully understand that Peruna is a valued tradition to many, because it is a valued tradition to me. However, SMU is going to be around for centuries. Look at the Universities in Europe, these institutions do not go away. In 100 years, as SMU looks to celebrate 200 years of education, if the football team is led out by two mustangs that will be a tradition too. Traditions come and go, history is replete with bygone traditions. It's OK folks.
I am just going to suggest that people at least consider the following hypothetical: We are the Mustangs but Peruna never happened. We never had a mascot. Someone gives us a Mustang to have as a mascot and you are asked to opine as to whether that is appropriate. What would your answer be?
All of this is contingent on the correctness of the assumption that we are actually replacing Peruna, of course. But IF we are to decide whether to replace Peruna with a Mustang or Mustangs then there is ONLY ONE issue. Do we wish to replace Peruna with another mascot? One does oneself great disservice by pretending that having the beautiful horses presented to us on Saturday as our mascots would be in anyway inappropriate or unimpressive. Go back to my hypothetical. Having Mustangs as the mascot for the SMU Mustangs makes patent sense. It is simply that many people do not wish to see Peruna replaced because of the tradition that Peruna has become. That's ok too.
Hypothetical situations are fun, but very weak when arguing a point. I respect your attempt to put the issue in a new light, but you cannot simply "rewrite" history in order to change your perception of things. You must start with the factual assumption that Peruna IS our mascot, and always has been. Obviously, if things were different, people would have no attachment to a Shetland and would welcome
some sort of mascot to fill the gap.
The bottom line is this:
Peruna is our mascot, and most members of Mustang Nation love Peruna. While a real mustang would be logical (given our name - the Mustangs), Peruna embodies the spirit and fight of a wild stallion that the larger horses do not (would be too dangerous, etc.). In addition, by requiring riders to control the horses, our natural inclination is to associate the school with the person
controlling the horses (i.e., the rider - especially since he will not be a zombie up there and probably would cheer / do tricks / whatever)...We aren't the cowboys or whatever...While Peruna's handlers attempt to control him (and you could thus associate SMU with stable hands...), it is obvious through the presentation and the long-standing tradition that they are not the focal point (in fact, I bet most people would not recognize the handlers outside of a football game).
You can say that some traditions come and go (and you would be right), but the most reverred traditions are extremely long term (think of some religious practices such as facing Mecca when you pray). Personally, I hope Peruna is one of the long term traditions that represents SMU.
I can say right now, the horses were unimpressive. They may be appropriate (since they were once Mustangs), but they were pretty boring. Perhaps if Peruna just stood there, he would be boring as well, but he has the advantage of being the standard by which others are judged (plus...he and his predecessors have done some crazy things - like killing other mascots).
Anyway, I think our football team is improving immensely. That was a FUN game to watch, even though we lost. I can't wait to go see the team in person when they come down here next week (I've been bad and haven't made a Dallas game yet). Hopefully, we can give the Cougars another solid effort and come out victorious!
