What exactly is the Big Green? For some current Dartmouth athletes who carry the name with them wherever they play, the college's nickname is wrapped up in mystery.
Tanner Glass '07, captain of the men's hockey team, had little knowledge about the College and the Big Green when he was recruited out of the small town of Craven, Saskatchewan.
"The only thing I knew about the Big Green was from the Disney soccer movie," Glass said, referring to the 1995 PG-feature "The Big Green."
"I didn't even know what the Big Green was," Glass added. "I didn't even know about Dartmouth before I got recruited."
Field hockey player Emma Palley '09, a Colorado native, was puzzled by the Big Green name when she was choosing a college.
"I did think it was strange that our mascot was a color," she said.
According to the Dartmouth College athletics website, the Big Green name began as a reference to Dartmouth's varsity sports teams that the news media adopted around the 1920s. The Big Green was used interchangeably with other names such as the Green, the Hanoverians and most notably the Indians.
Although the Indian name was banned in the mid-1970s, the Big Green has never been officially recognized as the nickname or mascot of Dartmouth by the administration. So the student body has been left to cheer on a name that lives on by popular tradition.
The College website description goes on to add one more interesting bit to the whole Big Green story. It acknowledges that student proposals over the years have attempted to implement a "tangible mascot" to accompany the Big Green name, but "to date, none of these recommendations has received sufficient broad based support from students or alumni."
Despite these past failures, a group of students is pushing the idea of a mascot to finally fill the mascot void. They want something strong and powerful, something that captures the spirit and nature of Dartmouth College without stirring up controversy.
Enter the moose, or Dartmoose, the latest candidate in the running for a "tangible" Dartmouth mascot.
The moose has strong connections to Dartmouth's culture of the outdoors and to wintry weather. And people can relate more easily to a living, breathing animal than to a color.
"It's a noble creature. I hear they are very aggressive, yet majestic," Palley said.
Nathan Bruschi '10, secretary of Student Assembly and a staff columnist for The Dartmouth, is the creator and one of the administrators of the popular group on Facebook.com, "Students for the Dartmoose."
The group, which had 942 members as of Sunday, asks "How much longer are we willing to be the only member of the Ivy League who has no idea exactly who we're cheering?" It goes on to list several facts and rumors about moose and moose-related stories.
Bruschi said the idea got started during Fall term 2006, when members of the Assembly student life group toyed with the moose mascot idea.
"I saw it as one of the pet projects I could take on," Bruschi said. "Green is certainly a strong symbol of what Dartmouth is. I think one of the things people see in the movement is that we're not trying to take the old traditions and crush them. We're trying to build off them. We have no mascot, and it's a source of tension."
Bruschi explained that the Assembly does not want to get rid of the Big Green name, but rather would want to preserve the moniker and add a moose mascot that could be used in a costume and logos.
"We need some kind of symbol to stand in for Dartmouth," he said.
The popularity of the moose stems in part from a 2003 Assembly vote, where students voted on which mascot should be used by the school. The moose won a plurality with 28 percent of the vote, but the choice did not garner the majority necessary for passage.
In terms of sentiment about the moose, Bruschi described three groups of students. One small cohort supports it, another small cohort detests it and a large majority of students don't have a particular stand on the issue.
For Dartmouth's student-athletes, the opinions range from those who support the mascot concept, whether it is a moose or not, while others seem to dislike the concept entirely.
"There is a Facebook group going around trying to get me to promote it," Glass recalled. "I think the [Big Green] name is alright, and I would definitely like to see some mascot. I think the moose is a good choice."
Glass said he would like to see the school keep the traditional block D logo if any changes to the mascot issue were to be made. But in all, he supported the Dartmoose movement.
"I would say definitely I'm pro-moose," he said.
Preston Copley '07, who was captain of the football team during the 2006 season, said he was behind the Dartmoose. But he thinks the change would be positive only if the entire campus embraced the idea.
"I like the idea of having a Dartmoose being our mascot," he said. "I'm a little wary about the entire campus' favor for it. If it's not broadly accepted, then it just won't fly and end up being worse than the Big Green."
Copley also saw the benefit of having the moose imagery at athletic contests to boost support and school spirit.
"I think the Dartmouth moose is something we could get around. If we had something like a live moose at game, it could be something special."
"Personally, I think getting a new mascot is a step in the right direction for our athletic programs. It gives the college something to rally around," he said.
Others are more reserved about the proposition of using the moose as the College's representative. Palley said she would support the moose as the official mascot, but had concerns if the name were to change from the Big Green.
"I would prefer to be the Dartmouth Big Green as opposed to the Dartmoose. I think it's more respectable," she said,
Palley also believed that it would seem too playful to have a large moose graphic on a field or a moose logo on an athletic jersey.
"I think it would be good to have a mascot we can have in our stands, or something that it is more marketable, more tangible than the color green. I don't necessarily want a big moose on my shirt."
Swimmer Kevin Ellis '09 said he was content with the Big Green name as the sole representation of Dartmouth athletics.
"I feel like it's kind of a good mascot," he said. "I have no problems with it.
It seems to work fine. It's more of a name rather than a mascot, which is kind of different. I enjoy being known as the Big Green."
Ellis was largely indifferent to the moose idea.
"I don't really care. The mascot is not a big deal, at least from a swimming standpoint," he said. "It doesn't affect how the team performs or anything important. I have no preference."
Presently if he had to vote about the issue, Ellis said he would not be in favor of the change.
"As for right now, I would definitely say no because I find the Big Green to be interesting. Currently it's what we're known for in the athletic community ... I feel like we rushed into the whole Dartmoose thing. It's kind of awkward to change it so suddenly."
Despite these differing views, one thing was constant among the athletes. Each said they had not been contacted directly by representatives from the Assembly or the athletic department to gauge the players' support of an official school mascot.
"It has been totally thorugh the grapevine," Glass said.
"No, I have not been contacted by anyone and I don't know about anyone on the team being contacted," Copley said. "I would be welcome to talk about it. My career is over now, but I still hope they [would] like my input. They definitely should take into consideration the athletes playing and representing the mascot."
"No one has actually talked to us about anything," Ellis added. I feel like it's within Student Assembly. No one has asked my opinions about it, and this is the first time anyone asked me about it."
Bruschi said that at this stage, the Assembly has not reached out to athletes to get a sense of the player's views on the issue. He argued that there was too much speculation about the details of the moose mascot, such as what a moose costume would look like, and that the Assembly will wait to ask students about the subject until the details are finalized.
Bruschi speculated, but could not confirm, that several high-ranking members of the Assembly may meet with Athletic Director Josie Harper and the women's lacrosse team in the coming weeks to directly address the mascot issue.
For now, the members of the Dartmouth community will have to be content with cheering on a color at varsity athletic contests.
