SEC Mascots Top 3 Picks
1.) Cocky
2.) Albert
3.) Big Al
As promised, here are my top 3 SEC mascot rankings. Now, I know I had three tiger mascots to choose from for this conference…and sorry to say…none of them were picked. Here’s two things to remember for when I pick the best mascots for each conference. 1.) They need to be big. 2.) They need to be funny. Let’s get into it.
1.) Cocky is the mascot for the South Carolina Gamecocks. One look…and instant laughter. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what animal it was for a minute. After some research, it’s clearly a rooster. Now, I’ve only had one encounter with a rooster and it was zero fun sir. (Hopefully, you football fans know that reference.) The rooster was mean and insisted on chasing an unwelcomed guest away. Maybe that was the idea behind choosing it for their mascot? Chasing away the competition? Now, Cocky doesn’t look mean, but according to South Carolina’s website, he’s “never too chicken to pump up our Gamecock spirit” which is so clever. He has the look of a rooster with his beak, tail, and cockscomb (top of the head), but his large midsection and yellow feet just make this character more lovable than mean. It was no question for making him my #1.
2.) Albert the Gator is a classic mascot for Florida University. I mean talk about the perfect mascot for the Florida region of where the real-life animal lives. While looking up pictures of Albert, it came to my attention that he has a fellow gator friend named Alberta. I was trying to get the scoop on if they’re boyfriend/girlfriend? Married? Just friends? Articles online weren’t very clear, even after Albert proposed in 2007. If a Gator fan could clear that up for me, that would be appreciated. I’m just going to focus on Albert for this ranking though. He’s a big guy with his green snout, legs, and feet. Now he’s not rolling on the floor funny, but still makes me giggle with his cute smile and alligator teeth. He obviously loves to represent the Florida Gator merch with his hat and t-shirt. I’ve always been jealous of the Florida Gator clap of the fan section, and I’m sure Albert is a big part of getting that started.
3.) Lastly, we’ve got Big Al. Now, I’m not on the Alabama football team bandwagon. This is about mascots only. Like hello – Big is in Al’s name, so he’s immediately passing the first criteria. He’s also got big ole’ ears and his trunk is probably the best feature, but not going to lie, I’ve been confused about this mascot for a long time. Not being from Alabama, I was confused by how the Crimson Tide, “Roll Tide”, and the elephant all came together.
Here’s a little history for ya. The crimson refers to the red of Alabama’s jerseys and Crimson Tide was a common phrase used by sportswriters to mean life or blood. More specifically, they used the phrase for describing the Alabama-Auburn football game of 1907. This game was played in muddy conditions, but resulted in a tie, even though Auburn was highly favored to win. Jump forward a few decades to the 1930’s. A sportswriter came up with the phrase “Hold your horses, the elephants are coming!” as the team came out on the field. Hence the famous elephant. They had a real elephant for a couple of decades, but decided on just having the costume mascot instead.
Phew…ok, you can read all about it on Wikipedia, but back to the rankings. We established Big Al as well…big, but he’s also a funny guy. His hands and feet don’t really have fingers, but he can make them into fists, which is just hilarious. If you look at Big Al’s costumes through the decades, you’ll get a kick out of it too. Also, I had to insert a picture of Big Al in plushie form and it’s just the funniest thing.
Welp… I think that does it for the SEC conference. Hopefully, you’ve learned some history and relationship drama of these mascots. I know I’ll think of them differently when I see them on the TV screen pumping up their teams in mascot fashion. Come back next week for the top 3 rankings of the B1G ten conference mascots.
