Hi All!
Good to hear the different perspectives! I’m Phil, from the Bobblehead Hall of Fame, and just wanted to address a few of the questions and concerns:
– Whose head should have been used instead? Because of licensing issues, we couldn’t just pick a player from the 1944 team. We were basically constrained to using the current mascot or leaving the school out of the series. The only case like this was with Marquette, which was the Warriors in 1977 when they won the National Champion. We produced theirs as the Golden Eagle, the school’s current mascot.
– Correct that we couldn’t use a Native American likeness.
– “Besides no one dressed in shorts like that in 1944.” That would have been interesting to see the mascot in the 1944 uniform.
– “Even the uniform style is wrong.” He’s wearing the current uniform style provided by the University to licensing.
– “You can instantly tell the age of a Utah fan by their like/dislike of Swoop. I think the Swoop hate is the most overblown thing in Utah fandom…maybe.” The situation with Marquette described above seems similar to Utah where older generations don’t like the change and younger people like the mascot because they don’t realize there was ever anything different. Marquette tried to go back to the Warriors (an alum even offered $1 million for them to go back), but they declined.
Iowa State @ 
Utah 
