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Mascotry
The subtle art of relieving another college of its mascot before ransoming it back for charity.
These articles are taken from a Fresher's Fair display that the RCS Black Hole put together back when I was at Imperial College, London, in the 1980s, that tried to give some background to the game and encourage new students to take an interest in it.
From a purely historical perspective, it's interesting to re-read them after so many years.
This index shows the introduction of each article. To view the whole article and any comments that have been posted, click the title of the article in the list below. If you want to comment, you'll need to register an account on this website and log in.
As time allows, these articles will be updated with the pictures from the original Freshers' Fair display and from other sources.
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Once upon a time, practically every College in the country had a mascot of some form or another. The practice of nicking these and then ransoming them back for charity was named "Mascotry".
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At that time, it was usual for mascots to be stolen almost all the time and indeed, THETA was lost at Morphy Day that year in November. He was regained about two weeks later from the middle of the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens, where Guilds had floated him.
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THETA MK I was ceremoniously burned on the 8th December 1964 at a UGM that adopted Mark II as his successor. THETA MK I had been stolen from a Dinner in October by Guilds and the time had come for a more robust model to be built (in '61 he'd actually fallen apart at the AGM!).
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RCS was without a mascot for the longest period ever - until the 10th of October 1970 (Saturday) when THETA MK III began to take shape.
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THETA MK IV is 7ft long, made of a solid stainless steel bulb and 6ft of steel hydraulic piping calibrated (logarithmically) from zero Kelvin to Infinity.
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Well, that is the story of our mascot, THETA. Now here are the stories of the other mascots that we have held recently. Remember, the object of Mascotry is to steal and then ransom another College's mascot back to them for charity.
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Chelsea College have (or rather had) and Anchor. Again, contact was established with a loose-tongued member of the College who let on that Anchor was plainly on view in the Union Building.
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Our most recent raid was upon QMC, once the main mascoteers in London, but who are now extremely reluctant to take part in the spirit of the game. However, their mascot is very nice - being a life sized wood and plaster of Paris leopard called Mary.
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Unfortunately, Chelsea seem very glad to have got shut of their Anchor and since their merger with Kings and Queen Elizabeth College are even less enthusiastic about doing anything to get it back. If anyone has any suggestions as to what we can do with the wretched thing, let us know!
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You may find, on arrival at IC, that kleptomaniac tendencies are rife. It is unlikely that you will avoid being caught up in at least a few, such as removal of street furniture (flashing lights, signs etc etc) or the occasional beer glass from pubs.
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On our own doorstep are two other colleges each with their own mascots.
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Perhaps our oldest rivals, once they were as carefully organised and accomplished as we are today. Their mascots are a large brass spanner called Spanner and a companion steel bolt, mounted on concrete, called Bolt.
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To describe the fortunes of RCS mascotry in the last twelve months as anything less than fine would be nothing short of an injustice.
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It was a cold lunch time late last December. A number of RCS people were waiting around the Guilds Union Meeting. The Vice President, who possessed a car, decided to attempt to follow the Guilds vehicles as they carried the mascots away from the meeting.
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Mines have become less and less active on the Mascotry front over the last 10 years. They took Spanner in 1973 and have lain low ever since, only occasionally attempting a raid on other colleges. Their mascot is a 3 ft high model of a miner's Davey lamp fashioned in anodised aluminium and called, unsurprisingly, Davey. We last had Davey in the 1982/83 session and the story behind that now follows...
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Imperial has its very own mascot as well as the Constituent Colleges' ones. This is Mike, a 4 ft long working model of a micrometer.
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This is the list of mascots lifted from various places at the time of THETA MK IV's twelfth birthday, since the inauguration of THETA MK IV.
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