Not only is West Lafayette in Indiana one of the shittiest college towns, it is also the home to the creepiest mascot in the whole of the college landscape.
That first statement is my opinion. The second is, apparently, a certified fact.
Quality Logo Products Blog surveyed 1,266 people about 128 different mascots (for some reason, who the hell knows why) and the results are now stone cold, indisputable truth.
The Boilermaker mascot was named the creepiest overall… congrats? It beat out fellow Big Ten school Penn State’s Nittany Lion and Cayenne, the resident pepper mascot at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
The Purdue mascot was also No. 2 in the top ten of the worst college mascots, claiming the spot second only to Oklahoma State University’s Pistol Pete.
According to its website, the study was conducted online with a total of 1,266 participants. All were encouraged to set aside any personal feelings they may have about the teams represented and focus solely on the mascots.
There were 128 mascots in the survey — representing all colleges and universities with NCAA Division 1 football teams that have costumed characters. Not all survey participants viewed every mascot. The 128 mascots were divided among 16 survey questions, each with eight randomized variations. Every survey taker evaluated at least 16 mascots. Each mascot was scored at least 150 times. Questions included multiple-choice rating scales and open-ended comment boxes.
The study participants were 55.4% male, 43.6% female, and 1% non-binary. They ranged in age from 18 to 79, with a median age of 36. In terms of sexual orientation, 85.1% identified as heterosexual, 2.8% as gay or lesbian, 10.9% as bisexual, and the remaining 1.1% preferred not to say.
If you care to check out some of the other finds, go for it.
