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NCAA - Texas tiki mascot

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I was reading some of the news articles on a NCAA Basketball tournament. One of the favored teams, Wisconsin, was losing during much of their game with a college called Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, whose nickname is 'The Islanders' -- beacuse the university is located on an island on the Gulf of Mexico coast.

What really caught my eye, though, was the following paragraph.


"The school’s band was dressed in tropical shirts. Its mascot wore a wooden tiki mask and a hula skirt. Its spunky fan base wore t-shirts with a green-and-blue wave logo. Unsuspecting visitors at the United Center might have thought the team arrived from the South Pacific, not South Texas.

After a few minutes of google, I was able to obtain the following images and graphics.

Here is a picture of their mascot - Izzy the Islander.
http://www.goislanders.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=14100&ATCLID=694685

and a cartoon image of Izzy the Islander. The school has licensed this character.
http://www.tamucc.edu/image_gallery/images/logos/izzy.png

You can buy t-shirts with this logo here ..
https://www.nmnathletics.com/sellnew/ViewItem.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=14100&ITMID=11465&ITMCATID=884

And if you do a google image search for 'Izzy the Islander', you can see a few action pictures.

As for the basketball game, the Islanders could not hold on to an early second-half lead, and Wisconsin won the game. Here is how one reporter described it.


The Badgers again looked like the confident contender, and the Islanders looked exhausted and overwhelmed, as if they truly had arrived straight from a direct flight from the South Pacific.

The cheers for both teams dissipated. Order was restored, and the chance for a memorable upset was gone. Wisconsin fans clapped in appreciation. The band members from Corpus Christi sat with their arms crossed. And the only Islanders fan wearing a smile was the mascot, his wooden face stuck in a grin.

Vern

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