Sports Services public relations officer says it slipped their minds
The University of Ottawa has announced that it is hosting a contest to name the school’s team mascot, after realizing that they never gave the Gee-Gees caricature a name since its creation.
“It honestly just slipped our minds,” said Cissie Kabum-Baa, the spokesperson for Varsity Athletics. “It’s been decades since we simplified it to ‘Gee-Gees’, but we can’t just call our mascot by what species it is. Sounds a bit rude to me.”
Early in its establishment, the University of Ottawa simply went by their official colours when it came to representation in sports. In the mid 20th century, Gee-Gees was adopted as the school’s official moniker.
Kabum-Baa claims that Varsity Athletics has been attempting to name the Gee-Gees mascot for nearly 30 years.
“That’s 30 years of failing to come up with a good name,” she said. “Then I decided, what invokes more school spirit than a contest? So we arranged to allow the students and staff to suggest names for the mascot.”
Participants can submit creative yet appropriate names to the survey. After two weeks of general submissions, the office will select their top ten favourites.
“It’s like putting on a Kahoot for a class you forgot to prepare for. Everyone thinks it’s fun, and it eases part of the responsibility off of you.”
Di Daniels, a third-year chemical engineering student, has been suggesting names to the spirit and morale commissioner’s office for years.
“Garrett, Grant, Greg, Grace, Groot, and Geronimo to name a few,” Daniels said. “They always said that they appreciated my suggestions and would get back to me on my submission.”
Kabum-Baa claims that Varsity Athletics didn’t always forget to name the Gee-Gees mascot.
“We’ve received hundreds of suggestions over the years, but I either lost the emails in my inbox or didn’t resonate with the names offered.”
Varsity Athletics will announce formal contest details on their Instagram and Facebook pages.
