The University of Toledo deleted the above tweet (visible in the Darren Rovell screenshot) yesterday, which announced that the MAC school would officially change its mascot to the Dreamworks animated character Shrek if the tweet eclipsed 500,000 retweets.

As the tweet amassed close to 100,000 retweets, generating approximately 1,000 per minute near the end of its short life, the university wiped it.

Shortly thereafter, in a PR maneuver, the university attempted to blame the “tongue-in-cheek” hoax on its current mascot, Rocky the Rocket.
 


Toledo’s closest geographic MAC opponent, the University of Bowling Green, chided the Rockets for the blunder.

This article appears in Apr 25 – May 1, 2018.

Sam Allard is a former senior writer at Scene.