Cera, from The Land Before Time
Students, staff and alumni of Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) have voted on “Triceratops” as the school’s new mascot. In an online poll held last month, the three-horned dinosaur secured nearly 30 percent of the votes (4,000+) to beat out five other options: Jazz, Tridents, Blizzard, Coyotes and Challengers, the name Tri-C has used for years. 

A design firm will now work with the university community to create a logo and mascot for athletic competition. An unveiling is expected in December.

“Triceratops seems ideally suited to represent the college,” Tri-C said in a press release announcing the name. “The stout and imposing dinosaur serves as a formidable yet likable creature that will be unique among school mascots.”

Indeed so!

Triceratops instantly becomes the best mascot among local colleges, far surpassing in originality the CSU Vikings, the John Carroll Blue Streaks, the CWRU Lions, the Baldwin-Wallace Yellow Jackets, the Kent State Golden Flashes and the University of Akron Zips.

The Fighting Scots of Wooster and the Terriers of Hiram are solid, but still several tiers below Triceratops.   

All of Tri-C’s potential new names were reportedly selected for branding and design possibilities, regional tie-ins and “fit.” That of course begs the question: Where on earth did “Coyotes” come from?  

This article appears in Oct 3-9, 2018.

Sam Allard is a former senior writer at Scene.

2 replies on “‘The LAND’ Before Time: Tri-C to Adopt Prehistoric Mascot”

  2. The students voted for the Triceratops as the new mascot & team name for Tri-C in 2005 too. Then it was overturned by the administration. Don’t know why. It was a good idea then too. We also had similar art for the logo back then produced by students without cost to the college. The suggested nickname then (and now) is the ‘Tops (with a top hat as an alternate logo for black tie events and the Jazz Fest).

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