Zach Maxwell
Staff writer
Now that Savage Storm fans have seen an artist’s rendering of the school’s new mascot, it is time to meet – and pick a name – for the furry character.
GoSoutheastern.com reports more than 100 unique names were submitted by nearly 500 people – the majority of those being Southeastern students.
A vote is underway until Oct. 3 (www.se.edu/mascot) to select from the four finalists chosen by SE President Larry Minks and his leadership council.
Those names are: Bolt, Lightning, Stormy and Sulli.
The actual mascot – with a human inside the bison costume – will make its first appearance on Friday, Oct. 4 at the Homecoming bonfire.
Bolt/Lightning/Stormy/Sulli’s first game appearance will be on Saturday, Oct. 5 at the football game against Texas A&M Commerce.
A mascot team is being put together, according to Luke Willman, director of interactive marketing and external athletic operations for the university.
In the future, try-outs will be held for the team and will include “scholarship positions.”
“We’re committed to always having a student as the mascot,” he said.
So, how did this iconic North American beast – inevitably tied to Native American heritage – get selected to represent a school whose team name now conjures images of rain, lightning and menacing clouds?
In 2006, after the NCAA forbade all mascots and nicknames referring to Native Americans, the school transitioned from the familiar Savages to the Savage Storm. That left the school without a mascot.
“We are committed to remaining the Savage Storm. It’s a proud legacy of Chancellor Johnson,” said Willman, referring to then SE president Glen D. Johnson. “It was never considered to change the nickname.”
Instead, a professional development initiative started by Minks revealed the need for a school mascot to reflect the new nickname.
This began in the summer of 2011 and was handed over to a task force within a much broader professional development program.
The group came up with 30-40 mascot concepts, and by the spring of 2012, Minks re-formed a mascot task force started by Johnson nearly a decade earlier.
Marketing firm Stone Ward of Little Rock, Ark., was brought in to help with market research, building upon the brand managing background and expertise of president Minks. By the summer of 2012, the mascot concept list had been winnowed to a pair of finalists.
Minks told The Southeastern in September 2012 that the two final options presented to the focus groups were a bison and a mustang.
“They did a series of focus groups to test the final two concepts,” Willman said. “Out of that, we had a very clear choice that the bison concept represented the Savage Storm nickname.
There were at least 100 different people in those focus groups. We got a strong cross section of the Southeastern faithful.”
The logo and costume design process took a year after the bison was chosen in late 2012.
With so many people involved, keeping the secret until this September’s announcement was a challenge, Willman said.
“That’s the risk you run when you involve so many people,” he said. “But we were committed to getting as much input as possible, and involving everyone we could in the process. And we gave up some secrecy to do it.”
Willman said “close to 1,000 people were touched by this” over the two year process.
He lists every imaginable group connected to SE as being part of the process including students, faculty and alumni.
Southeastern student and staff member Phillip Lee, a Native American, penned his thoughts to Chris Wesberry, director of the SE Native Center for Student Success.
“In the golden age of the (bison), when they ran through the area it would kick up a cloud of dust, darkening the sky like a storm cloud,” Lee wrote.
“The ground shook like thunder and finally after the herd had gone through, the ground would be torn up like a tornado had gone through.”
School officials are hoping the new mascot will draw similar reactions from the Southeastern community for years to come.
“President Minks feels like this will represent the pride, resilience and strength which represents more than just Southeastern athletics,” Willman said.
“It represents the core of this university .and its more than 100 years of history.”