Mascot from Oklahoma's Oral Roberts University gets tossed from championship game

One of the student mascots for the Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles will no longer be flying during basketball games. Seems one of the students who wears the oversized eagle costume, with a head the size of a Mini Cooper, got into a tussle with an opposing team's mascot and wound up getting his feathers tarred.

 

ORU's Eli the Eagle tangoed rodeo style with Jawz the Jaguar of Indiana-Purdue Indianapolis during a championship game March 11. Man, who comes up with these mascot names?

 

Summit League associate commissioner Ed Grom told the Tulsa World he ejected both mascots after the first-half fracas.

 

"I told them they were done for the night," Grom said. "I told them to take off their costumes and nobody else would be using them."

 

It started out as a simple dance-off between the two mascots. Isn't that how all mascot fights start out? The video of the scuffle, which could replace Rep. Sally Kern's comments on the YouTube list of favorite Oklahoma videos, shows Jawz attacking Eli, putting the eagle in a full nelson and dismantling the bird's head. At one point, a Jag cheerleader tries to separate the fight, but it is never a good idea to get between a jaguar and his prey. After a brief rest, the two go at it again, with Jawz body slamming Eli before the two combatants are separated for good.

 

The next day, ORU suspended its student from playing the role of Eli for the rest of the year. The school would not release the student's name.

 

This fight continues a growing trend across the country of mascot-on-mascot violence. It's only a matter of time before Congress takes up the matter and chooses between eliminating all mascots or providing tax incentives to friendlier spirit squads. - Gazette staff

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