Wednesday, September 14, 2011

The hog in all it's forms

It's impossible to go anywhere in this town without encountering a picture of a razorback (or something that is intending to be interpreted as a razorback...more on that in a second). I thought it might be worth devoting a post to the different iterations of the razorback that are seen around town.

The first is the common angry-pig drawing or cartoon that is often on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and other printed materials:



Then we have what might be my favorite, the live masoct Tusk, who is one of the only remaining live mascots in the SEC. According to my Wikipedia research, we are now on Tusk III, as Tusk II died in 2010. Tusk is not actually a razorback, but is actually a Russian boar who weighs over 400 lbs. He's super duper cute, though:



Apparently he goes to all of the home games, which is reason enough for me to attend a game, as I'd totally love to see this iteration of Tusk in person.

Then we have what has been dubbed by an ESPN poll as the "most annoying mascot in the SEC," Boss Hog (not to be confused with Boss Hogg from the Dukes of Hazard) and his band of other random mascots. From what I can gather, we have (from left to right): Sue E., Big Red (the fightin' Razorback), inflatable Boss Hog, Ribby (the baseball mascot), and Pork Chop, the kid version. There is also a lady version of Big Red who didn't end up in this picture.




And last, we have my favorite sighting, the Razorback fountain which is not too far from the psychology building:




When you look at the statue head on, it looks like the pig is drooling water. It's either hilarious or gross, depending on mood. Apparently this statue is a recreation of a classic statue in Florence, Italy from somewhere around the 1500s. This information is posted on a plaque on the ground in front of the statue, and as a random gentleman pointed out as we were reading it, there are also a bunch of other little animals (snakes, turtles, etc.) also bronzed at the great pig's feet as a part of the statue.

As soon as said gentleman announced this to us, he promptly stuck his head under the water and proceeded to wet his entire head. I thought to myself, "Hmmm, this dude is washing his hair in pig drool." Which just goes to show how essential the razorback is to life in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

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