A team mascot is thought to bring luck, whether it is person, object, or animal and is used to represent a group with a common identity, such as a school, military unit, society, professional sports team and schools. Representative Spokespeople for consumer products are often used with fictional mascots for advertising and marketing as well.

History of Team Mascot Animals, People & Objects

Mascots are also frequently used in the sport industry for merchandising. Confused with team nicknames, team mascots are not always the same, but often interchangeable. The University of Alabama athletic teams, for example, are nicknamed the Crimson Tide, but their mascot is named Big Al, an elephant. Sports mascots are often used as marketing tools for their teams to children; as the team mascots take the form of live animal, inanimate object, a logo, person, or a costumed character, where they frequently attend team matches and other related events. Costumed characters have provided teams with an opportunity to choose a fantasy creature as their mascot since the mid-20th century. Costumed mascots are fairly commonplace in the community as well. Using mascots as a form of an animal was originally the first thought of sporting organizations in an effort to deliver entertainment and excitement for the spectators. Prior to using animals, mascots were fictional icons or people in suits. Initially, animals were used to intimidate the rival teams and were used to bring a different feel to the game.

Three Dimensional Mascot

Mascots evolved from predatory animals to two dimensional fantasy mascots and eventually into the modern three dimensional mascots and the new era changed and time marched on. In the 1960s, the invention of muppets prompted the change. Offering a different change from the traditional mascots, the muppets allowed the spectators to have visual enjoyment and the opportunity to interact physically. Taking on board the muppet like idea, marketers quickly realized the great potential in three-dimensional mascots. Resulting in mascots being a necessity amongst the sporting industry as well as other organization, the change encouraged other companies to start creating their own mascots.

Lucky Mascot Meaning

Mascot originated from the French term “mascotte”, meaning lucky charm, the term was frequently used to describe anything that brought luck to a household. Performed in December 1880, a French composer Edmond Audran who wrote the opera La mascotte where the word was first recorded in 1867 and popularized and by 1881, the word entered in the English language. A slang word used by gamblers, the terms were familiar to the people of France. Meaning sorceress or witch, the term is derived of the word “masco”. The word ‘mascot’, before the 19th century, was associated with inanimate objects that were very common in day to day life, such as lock of hair or the figurehead of a ship. The term was then seen to be associated with good luck animals, objects, and so on from then on and in present times.

Mascot & Other Chainsaw Carvings Carved in Las Vegas, Nevada & Helena, Montana

If you have a favorite mascot, whether it is your current sports team, the college you attended, or whatever the case may be, we at Carve me A Bear! Chainsaw Carvings and Clark the Carver is readily available to create your custom mascot carving. Call us today for more details.