My co-workers get a kick out of my Fighting Okra shirt every time I wear it.
I graduated from Delta State University in 1983. At the time, our mascot was the DSU Statesman, quite possibly the most boring mascot in the nation. Everyone else had Panthers, Rebels, Bulldogs, Vandals, Vikings, Tigers, Bears and Hawks.
We had this thing that looked like a Leprechaun on steroids. No connection to the Mississippi Delta region, no personality, and no defining character traits.
The way I've heard it, several years after I graduated some guys in the athletic dorm got a bit tipsy and drew up the first ever picture of the Delta State University Fighting Okra. Granted, the Mississippi Delta isn't particularly known for Okra, but at least the Delta is very green, we grew a lot of other plants there, and it was distinctive. NOBODY else would have stadiums full of college kids chanting OKRA! OKRA! OKRA! after touchdowns.
The idea took off from there.
Here's the back of my DSU Fighting Okra T-Shirt, sent to me by former neighbor Alan LaMastus.
The Okra still isn't the official mascot of Delta State University. The Stateman and The Okra have agreed to co-exist until enough elderly alumni pass away. Then the Statesman costume can then be sent back to whichever Irish Pride Festival or St. Patrick's Day Parade it came from.
Some radio station once published a listing of the Top 5 Bad College Mascots. They declared the "Okra" the absolute worst.
Here's a slice of what they had to say:
GO OKRA !!!!
I graduated from Delta State University in 1983. At the time, our mascot was the DSU Statesman, quite possibly the most boring mascot in the nation. Everyone else had Panthers, Rebels, Bulldogs, Vandals, Vikings, Tigers, Bears and Hawks.
We had this thing that looked like a Leprechaun on steroids. No connection to the Mississippi Delta region, no personality, and no defining character traits.
The way I've heard it, several years after I graduated some guys in the athletic dorm got a bit tipsy and drew up the first ever picture of the Delta State University Fighting Okra. Granted, the Mississippi Delta isn't particularly known for Okra, but at least the Delta is very green, we grew a lot of other plants there, and it was distinctive. NOBODY else would have stadiums full of college kids chanting OKRA! OKRA! OKRA! after touchdowns.
The idea took off from there.
Here's the back of my DSU Fighting Okra T-Shirt, sent to me by former neighbor Alan LaMastus.
The Okra still isn't the official mascot of Delta State University. The Stateman and The Okra have agreed to co-exist until enough elderly alumni pass away. Then the Statesman costume can then be sent back to whichever Irish Pride Festival or St. Patrick's Day Parade it came from.
Some radio station once published a listing of the Top 5 Bad College Mascots. They declared the "Okra" the absolute worst.
Here's a slice of what they had to say:
Well, yeah, that's kinda the way it happened.The pride of Cleveland, Mississippi - Delta State University and the feared "Fighting Okra". As you well know, there's nothing that can scare the bejeebers out of you like a ticked off vegetable. Remember those terrible nightmares you had as a child of that horrible "Fighting Okra" coming to drag you off into the garden? Course you don't. Nobody does. Fighting Okra? Sounds more like the college took a dare from several rednecks in Mississippi to brand themselves that way....
GO OKRA !!!!
