Dinos mascot Rex knocked out in first round of CBC’s Mascot Madness Poll

By Kristy Koehler, September 7 2018 —

Last week, the CBC took to Twitter to incite an inter-university rivalry. Using the hashtag #CdnMascotMadness, the public broadcaster pitted 16 well-known university mascots against one another. Rex, the beloved dinosaur mascot from the University of Calgary, was among the combatants.

Started in anticipation of the impending varsity football season, the competition featured bracket style match-ups. Sudden-death, winner-take-all polls were made available for the Twitterverse to cast their votes. The first round paired Rex the Dino with JW the Mustang from Western University. The tweet sent out by CBC seemed to laughingly suggest that Rex had it locked down.

“Dinosaurs are fierce but so are purple bare-naked horses with their favourite school tattooed on their chest,” the tweet read.

A total of 2,918 votes were cast in the Rex vs. JW poll, far more than any of the other match-ups. The next-closest voter turnout was in the University of Saskatchewan’s Howler the Husky vs. Carleton’s Rodney the Raven contest, which saw only 1,262 votes cast. Despite Tweets from the U of C Alumni Association, Dinos Athletics and several departments and faculty members, Rex fell to JW in the first round, with 52 per cent of the vote going to JW compared to 48 per cent for Rex. The results suggest that fierceness did not play a role.

JW went on to beat Acadia University’s Axeman before being bested by True Blue, the University of Toronto’s blue beaver mascot, the ultimate victor. Students, alumni and faculty from various schools rallied around their mascots, just in time for the beginning of the school year.

Come help console Rex by cheering for the Dinos at Kickoff on Friday, Sept. 7. Tailgating, Students’ Union Fun Zone and the Alumni Weekend Block Party begin at 3:30 p.m. The Dinos take on the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds at 5:30 p.m. Hopefully, this will be one match-up Rex doesn’t lose.