From a Scottie to a Scot: Maryville College and the lack of a costumed mascot

By Eli Cauthorn \ Sept. 29, 2026

Today, Maryville College students and alumni know and call each other “The Scots”, represented by a Scottish knight in the MC athletics logo. However, we used to have people in costume representing the college at sporting events, mainly football games. 

“The most recent mascot was a black dog with fangs, and that showed up around the late 1990s to the early 2000s,” Karen Eldridge (‘94), executive director of marketing and communications said. 

“Also in the 2000s, we had a couple of male students who would secure kilts, paint their faces, and run out onto the football field with the Power M flag. They would also join the cheer squad in leading some cheers, even though they weren’t officially a part of that group,” Eldridge added. 

Known as the Scottie Dog, Maryville’s mascot had a relatively limited presence on campus. Eldridge does not really remember the Scottie Dog being a big deal during her time as a student and early days as an employee at the college. After all, it really did only show up for football games. 

As time passed on, the Scottie Dog costume became too worn to continue using. It was phased out for this reason, and since then MC hasn’t had a costumed mascot appear at all. 

However, staff in the marketing and athletic departments, as well as the student body, all agree that it’s time for a change. The idea to re-implement a costumed mascot has been brewing among staff.

“We’re in the very preliminary stages of designing a mascot, and hopefully we can set it up as a student worker position. Somebody or some people will be able to dress up as a Scot for games, and we think people would love it,” Athletics Communications Director Jacob Woods said. 

“That’s essentially where we stand with the mascot; we do want to bring it back and we’re in the beginning stages of doing that,” Woods added. 

Eldridge personally voiced her support for a mascot, saying that she would be in favor of a Scot and not a dog. 

“I would love for the College to have an official mascot; a Scot that wears our official tartan and a thoughtful program that went along with it. I would love to see it welcoming people to Admissions and Alumni events, friendly sparring with other mascots at athletic games, and participating in some student programs,” Eldridge said. 

While some students have been restless for the re-introduction of a mascot, the staff feel like it’s been long overdue. The power M, the “Scots” word mark (pictured), and the “Maryville College Scots” logo were all adopted in 2006, and getting other branding that can help support that image that the College is trying to create can be a huge marketing benefit. 

“It would also build school spirit, add to the fun of events, and provide a unique opportunity for students to take on the role of the Scot. I see our Scottish identity as a distinctive feature of the College, and a costumed Scot is another way to share that story,” Eldridge said. 

Logistically, it would take a couple extra things to re-establish a mascot. The investment cost of the costume aside, the person inside the mascot needs training, scheduling, and guidance to make sure that they do their job effectively. Plus, it might entail the students that take on this responsibility earning extra scholarship money, making it a competitive opportunity and therefore creating extra responsibilities for staff that are involved in the plan. 

For larger schools, mascots are generally known to be anonymous until they end up graduating. For Maryville, that might also end up happening.

“I’m not sure whether it’ll be a full suit or a costume, where somebody dresses up instead of putting on a suit, we haven’t decided that yet. But if it ends up being a suit, maybe we can try [being anonymous],” Woods said. 

“I think you’d be able to figure it out pretty quickly, especially because we’re such a small school, and I would love for it to be that way but we haven’t gotten that far in what kind of costume it’s going to be,” Woods added. 

The final point for mascots: other peer universities, mainly ones in our conference, all have costumes that they use for marketing. The University of the South has a tiger, Rhodes College has a lynx that dresses up, and Centre College has an eagle that they use for events like their family weekend. 

“You want a suited or costumed mascot that closely matches the image that people will see on our website, in printed publications, and on branded merchandise,” Eldridge said.