I’d like to point out that there’s an awful lot of Husky-mania going on around our house. Sure, I get it — I was named for the ultimate Husky hero, Kemba Walker. And we do live in Connecticut. And UConn is a damn good squad —
there’s no doubt about that!
But I find myself wondering if there might be a team — somehow, somewhere — with a Duck Toller as its mascot. And it turns out there is!!! The Halifax Wanderers of the Canadian Premier (soccer) League! I
found this in a post about the Wanderers by Allen Galley in the Maritime Pro Ball blog:
I really love the mascot. Rover is an appropriate name for a mascot for the Wanderers. I like the fact that Rover is a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, which is the official dog of Nova Scotia . . .
You do remember I have Nova Scotia roots, right? That I was born in Saltydog Kennels, in the town of Ardoise, just 30 miles from Halifax? So the selection of a Toller as the team mascot was huge for me. And from what I’m hearing, Rover’s a pretty popular mascot. Sue Dinham, who took her two little girls to a Wanderers game, wrote on the FamilyFun Halifax site:
There may . . . have been just one “player” that stood out for my kids a little bit above the rest — Rover, the playful pup, the official mascot of the Halifax Wanderers . . .
As a matter of fact, Rover was named the #2 mascot in the league by the 13th Man Sports blog, trailing only Forge FC’s Sparx, an online dragon who can’t even play soccer.
While I was happy to find out there actually is a Toller mascot, all my digging left me
with two important questions: (1) If the UConn athletic teams can be known as “the Huskies”, why can’t the Halifax team by known as “the Tollers”? And (2) Besides their two-legged cheerleader in a fuzzy Husky outfit who revs up the crowd at their games, UConn also has a real, live Husky — Jonathan — as its actual mascot. But, at least as far as I know, the Wanderers don’t have a living, breathing Duck Toller to lead their team to victory. So Halifax, if you need a volunteer, you know where to find me!
Beagle Man always has a lot to say, so I’ll just pipe up in The Duck Dog Speaks whenever I can.
Who knew? I think the world would be a better place if we had more dogs as mascots, and fashioned ourselves more like dogs in our behavior: loyal, friendly, fun, energetic. You go Kemba!
You got that right!
You raise excellent points, Kemba. But , I would be a bit off put were I you. What’s with the nickname the “Wanderers”. By association the implication is that Tollers are an aimless and shiftless lot with little gumption. Granted that picture of you about to snooze off on the pillow that BM chose to post doesn’t help my point, but what about the relentless fetching of tennis balls, pouncing on stray scraps of food and often wearing out your mates on the beach? No wandering there!
So should they call to ask you to be mascot insist on a new team nickname.
Good call, Bill!