Why your mascot sucks: New Mexico State University

Well kids, it is with great sadness that I have to report that this will be the last weekly mascot article I will be writing this season… As the Badgers move into their conference slate next week, all of their remaining opponents have already been through the ringer of mascot suckiness.

Now, provided Wisconsin faces off against a team we have not seen before in the postseason, then we will be sure to dust the cobwebs off this series and resurrect it.

Origins

New Mexico State University, has not always been New Mexico State University. In 1888 when it was founded, the school went by the name of Las Cruces College. This was 24 years before New Mexico was granted statehood in 1912.

In 1889, the legislature authorized the construction of an agricultural college in the area and it was named New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

Las Cruces College merged with New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, taking the new name in the merger and it was until 1960 that the school went by New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, when the school changed names to its current name, New Mexico State University.

While most universities bounce around from nickname to nickname, I cannot find any record of New Mexico State going by any other name, other than the Aggies.

I think most agricultural schools have gone by the name Aggies at one point or another and while some have moved on to bigger and better names, some still go by Aggies, which literally means a student of an agricultural school.

So chalk one up in the creativity column for agricultural schools that still go by the name, Aggies (insert eye roll).

However, the ‘creativity’ did not end there for New Mexico State. Their logo looked as though it look a long time for them to come up with it...

In October of 2014, Oklahoma State University sued New Mexico State University in federal court, asking NMSU to stop using its mascot, claiming they had trademarked the image, way back in 1930. NMSU had been using its ‘Classic Aggie’ mascot since 1970.

Sounds mighty suss, as the kids say. No cap on that. (Did I use those right?)

However, the suit ended with the schools coming to an agreement, where NMSU would pay OKSU a whopping $10 per year to continue using the ‘Classic Aggie’ logo on limited items sold through the school’s bookstore or online store.

NMSU is also not allowed to use the image or mascot in connection with its athletic program or in student recruiting. However, they can sell or give away a maximum of 3,000 items as gifts with the ‘Classic Aggie’ logo on the item.

The ‘Classic logo,’ is said to be the depiction of Frank ‘Pistol Pete’ Eaton, who was a scout, sheriff and cowboy… and based on that mustache… quite the man.

Ironically, Frank ‘Pistol Pete’ Eaton is also who OKSU modeled its mascot after... again, suspicious.

The school introduced a new logo in 2005, of Pistol Pete with a lasso. The disarmament of Pete was not received well by the student body, alumni, and others, and a year later the school gave Pete back his pistols.

Appearance

https://housing.nmsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/2021/05/NMSU_Housing_Headline_SUMMER_05-17-2021_Vol1.pdf

While Pistol Pete has long been the mascot at New Mexico State, he has featured a few different looks.

In 1988, the school debuted a big-headed Pistol Pete, which was a person, which a large mascot head with a huge mustache. The head weighed 25 pounds and some students that donned the head, lost 5-15 pounds of water weight during an event.

The school’s current logo is a square-jawed Pistol Pete, wearing a red vest, featuring ‘NM State’ on it with his iconic two six-shooters and his famous mustache.

While the school has gotten rid of the fiberglass head, they still use a student dressed up as Pistol Pete at sporting events.

AP

Which is fine, I get it. Your mascot is a cowboy, so why not just have a guy playing cosplay as a cowboy. But where they lose me is the comically fake mustache.

Grow a mustache like a real man!

Still, it is 2022, why not just make a costume that matches the school mascot. It would be so easy.

While I would not go as far as to recommend using Rowdy, the Dallas Cowboys mascot as a template, because no one should… not even the Cowboys.

A Pistol Pete mascot, could be easily made, I mean this is practically him.

And if Star Costumes can make this, imagine what a D1 school could muster up…

But seriously, end the reign of fake mustaches... build a full-on mascot costume.