By The Scene staff
St. Louis Community College got a new mascot nearly two years ago, but COVID-19 kept him largely out of sight in 2020, and his image just started appearing on STLCC merchandise.
“Archie” the fox can now be found on hoodies, foam fingers, megaphones, keychains and other items sold in campus bookstores or distributed at hospitality tables.
“He’s been around, but I don’t think they’ve done a lot of promotion,” said Kirk Martin, faculty supervisor of the Forest Park gymnasium.
“I like him. … He’s a funny character, and people respond to him pretty well. You’d think it would just be children, but even adults turn into big fans when he’s around.”
Archie made his debut in 2019, when STLCC bought a costume for a 6-foot-tall grey fox with tufts of white fur, a giant head and bright blue eyes. He offered more personality than the college’s original mascot, the Gateway Arch.
Archie showed up for Archers sports games, training sessions and other events. Then the coronavirus hit, sending most students and faculty members home for remote learning.
“Archie got out quite a bit that first year,” said Mike Overman, director of athletics. “But obviously with the pandemic, there haven’t been nearly as many campus-related events.”
Consolidation plan
For decades, STLCC campuses had their own mascots and sports teams that competed against each other.
Forest Park teams were called the Highlanders, and their mascot was a man from the Scottish Highlands, wearing a kilt and playing a bagpipe. The campus had been built in the 1960s on the site of The Highlands amusement park, which was destroyed in a fire.
In 2011, the STLCC Board of Trustees voted to cut costs by implementing a sports consolidation plan. It replaced teams on individual campuses with one districtwide team for each sport.
“The name ‘Archers’ evokes an attitude that reflects St. Louis’ identity as the Gateway to the West and the passion that (the college’s) team will take into competition,” Athletics Task Force member Pam McIntyre stated at the time.
In 2017, the Student Affairs department started searching for a new mascot. That was before Overman became director of athletics.
The college “tried to come up with something that made sense,” he said, noting the grey fox is indigenous to Missouri. “We wouldn’t have a crocodile or an alligator or something like that.”
Quiet cheerleader
STLCC students are expected to play the role of Archie in the future, but during COVID-19, two anonymous employees have been shouldering the responsibility.
That includes cleaning and disinfecting the costume, particularly the head, after each use to keep germs from spreading.
“Archie doesn’t speak to anybody,” one of the employees said. “You have to be very animated and draw people in just by your emotion and getting their attention, so there is no verbal communication from Archie.”
The employee got pep-rally experience as a high-school cheerleader, but there’s really no way to prepare for wearing a fox costume in hot, humid weather. One outside event last year required 20-minute rotations.
“You have to bring extra clothes to wear underneath Archie,” the employee said. “It’s pretty much like a wool outfit. It’s pretty warm.”
STLCC departments and organizations can request Archie to attend their events by going to his page on the college’s website. He’s already booked for graduation.
Scholarship possibility
Archie is a physical education and theater major who enjoys meeting new people and cheering the Archers to victory, according to his foxy online profile.
“Archie is friendly, confident, smart, energetic and always learning,” it states.
These are some of the characteristics that staff try to instill in their student athletes, according to men’s basketball coach Terry Collins, whose team is based at Forest Park.
Collins believes the mascot can positively affect STLCC campus life in many ways.
“I would love to have the college invest a little more in finding a qualified candidate every year to embody Archie and be a very visible presence on campus — inviting students to the games, creating an energetic atmosphere at a variety of student events and engaging faculty and staff as well,” he said.
Collins proposed the idea of Student Activities working with the STLCC Foundation to create a scholarship competition to select a student to portray Archie, perhaps with the help of business or marketing majors.
“If the college invested scholarship dollars into the project, it would communicate the administration’s commitment to the importance of the mascot,” he said. “I would even volunteer to serve on a committee to implement the project.”
Overman said efforts are being made to establish a scholarship for students who portray Archie. Interested candidates can email him at moverman4@stlcc.edu.