The University of Oregon's Lost Mascot: RoboDuck

The Oregon Ducks are taking on Ohio State Buckeyes tonight (what the hell is a Buckeye?) and my various social media feeds are awash in football-ian enthusiasm. The ducks, of course, have one of the most amiable and jolly of all college mascots: Rather than having something pointy, ferocious, or clichéd like a wildcat or wolf or banana slug, the University of Oregon’s mascot is the lovable, cantankerous Donald Duck. The mascot is officially known as “Puddles,” but, c’mon, it’s Donald, and the U of O has used Mickey’s spittle-spewing BFF for years after a 1947 handshake agreement with Walt Disney.

Except for that one time in 2002 when the Oregon Ducks decided to adopt a newer, sleeker, less huggable mascot named Mandrake, who looked like what would happen if the Green Goblin fucked Howard the Duck.

Mandrake (as he would later be called) had all the markers of his time period. He looked mean. He looked extreme. He looked like a duck who could kick your ass. In other words, he looked like the 1990s incarnate, a few years too late. Mandrake did backflips and rode a motorcycle. He was, supposedly, hatched from an egg in a toxic waste dump. He was Hardcore to the Max. He was a classic Poochie.

I was at Oregon when Mandrake (or RoboDuck, as he was also called) debuted, and a member of the Athletic Department Finance Committee. (I was a big dork who was involved in student government.) The reactions from the student body were universally negative, and when student representatives like me met with folks from the Athletic Department, we made our feelings known about having the misbegotten progeny of RoboCop and the green Power Ranger suddenly representing our school.

An Athletic Department representative told us, a bunch of whiny twentysomethings who missed our familiar cartoon character, that Mandrake was not for us. The point of Mandrake, they said, was to appeal to young boys and start a whole new generation of Duck fans. Also, because he didn't look like Donald, the university would have more liberty to use the new mascot in merchandising. Phil Knight and the University of Oregon badly wanted the Ducks to be a nationally known, marketable team, and Mandrake was what they were going to use to sell it. Arguments about the students or alumni not liking a freakish hybrid of Darth Vader and the Green Lantern fell on deaf ears. In the same meeting where I and my other committee members complained about the new mascot, we were told that we'd get used to it.

At least, that's what they said initially. Mandrake last appearance was at a 2003 basketball game, and since then Puddles/Donald has been the only duck for Oregon. Mandrake was last seen on April 1st, 2013, when Oregon (jokingly) announced that they'd be bringing him back.