Samurai Vs. Dolphin

By Adam Starr

Ad Manager

For most of us we were in elementary school or just starting it and did not really care about Shoreline Community College. But, in 1991, SCC decided to change its mascot from the Samurai to the Dolphins. Yes, for some of you it’s a shock to even know we had a mascot and then for those of you who did, you are probably shocked to know it’s a dolphin, oh how intimidating.

Normally your mascot should strike fear into the heart of your opponents, but a dolphin uh, isn’t too scary. Think about it, a dolphin is an animal you go laugh at with your little brother and sister at Sea World. A samurai is an elite warrior who attacks enemies fiercely and leave no trace of their attack.

This is one of those mascot problems where somebody feels they are offending a different cultural group, and wants to be politically correct, and change the mascot to something else. I am pretty sure mascots are not picked to offend someone, but more as symbols people admire and would want to emulate. I don’t really want to splash around and make high pitch noises like I am going through puberty. On the baseball team, one of our jokes is our mascot. When talking to my friends that go to other colleges in the state like UW, EVCC, WSU, and UPS the dolphin is a great conversation piece sometimes, usually it just gets laughed at and made fun of.

Shoreline isn’t the only school which has had problems. Other schools from High Schools (Meadowdale used to be the Chiefs and are now the Mavericks) to major colleges such as Florida State and even professional sports teams like the Washington Redskins have been mascot challenged. Earlier this year there was a list of eighteen colleges barred from using symbols in postseason tournaments under NCAA guidelines. The schools also could not host postseason events. The Florida State Seminoles, Central Michigan Chippewas and the Utah Utes, were a few colleges this year who were on an NCAA list of schools for possible name changes, but appealed and were removed from the list of eighteen.

Using a Native American Tribe or a Warrior from Japan as a mascot shouldn’t be seen as a sign of disrespect, but as a sign of respect. The Cleveland Indians and their Mascot Chief Wahoo were picked to honor the first Indian baseball player, Louis Francis Sockalexis.

Getting back to the dolphins... In what body of water in, or near, Washington contains a dolphin? If you can find me one dolphin in Puget Sound then I’ll give you a crispy 20 dollar bill. At least being in a culturally diverse state, and region of the state, the Samurai is much more fitting. The least the school could do would be to change from the dolphins to the Fightn’ ‘Phins. But for now, I recommend you keep the whole dolphin thing on the down low and don’t tell your friends about our mascot unless you want to get a good laugh at yourself.