University raising funds for metal mascot on campus next fall
Cocky might be getting a life-sized, bronze-cast twin next fall.
USC hopes to raise between $75,000 and $100,000 over the next year to build a statue of the mascot on Gibbes Green, near the Pickens Street Bridge, said Denise Wellman, the director of the university’s visitors center.
It’s an effort, Wellman said, “to ‘Gibbes’ Cocky a home.”
USC has selected a sculptor for the project, Wellman said, but that person’s name — and a rendering of just what the statue will look like — are still pending approval from the university design and review committee.
Wellman said she hoped a new statue would establish a tradition for the university, both for prospective students and for alumni, and a new spot for visitors to pose for pictures.
The university hopes to roll out the statue next fall during the 2013 football season, which marks the 10-year anniversary of Cocky’s winning the Capitol One Mascot Challenge. As of this week, he’s sitting pretty at No. 1 again this year.
Some students and alumni were less enthusiastic about the project. In phone interviews and on social media, they questioned the necessity of raising funds for the statue while they dealt with scarce parking, aging dorms, rising tuition and other issues.
“It just sends a terrible signal,” Alex Imgrund, a 2006 graduate of USC’s School of Law, said. “Who does a statue of Cocky benefit?”
Christian Turner, a third-year education student, said he could understand spending less — around $15,000, perhaps — and others, like fourth-year marketing and management student Chelsey Allen, said they’d be OK with a sculpture that honored the university’s history or a prominent figure.
“I could see if it was a major figure at USC, like (football coach Steve) Spurrier down the line, but it’s a mascot,” Allen said.
Others, like Dustin Akers, a 2008 business graduate, were more supportive of the concept.
Akers said he’d traveled to the University of Florida and seen the prominence of the school’s gator mascot around campus — and wished USC had something like it.
“I felt like we were missing out,” Akers said, adding that he would be willing to donate to the project.
The campaign to raise funds for the statue only began in earnest Thursday with an event on Greene Street, and though Wellman said the project had already raised some money before then, she wouldn’t disclose how much. The fundraising campaign will focus primarily on groups of current and past student leaders, she said.
“We still have a ways to go,” Wellman said.
Though the event Thursday doubled as the kickoff for the statue’s fundraising, it was mainly focused on celebrating National Philanthropy Day and the community service work the mascot’s become associated with, Wellman said, like Cocky’s Reading Express and the handful of other events he attends, something she thinks distinguishes Cocky from other schools’ mascots.
“He’s been a such a great role model,” she said. “He’s been a great mascot for us.”
The event featured the Cocky’s Reading Express bus, computers for students to vote in the mascot competition and a number of dancing flash mobs that included Cocky — including one to Psy’s “Gangnam Style.”
Wellman thinks it’s part of the tradition that surrounds Cocky — one she hopes a statue would add to.
“People really crave tradition,” Wellman said. “Cocky’s a great tradition.”