Everybody’s Heard About the Bird
You may know of Carleton’s mascot, Rodney the Raven—he has been part of campus life for decades. But did you know that Rodney didn’t always fly solo? In 1983, he had a mascot wife named Ruby the Raven. The fluff-and-stuffing couple took over the turf before football games as crowd-revving hype makers. The job of mascot hasn’t changed much over the years—though the costume has. The current uniform resembles a common raven, while older outfits featured yellow beaks and legs and a velvety coat. Today’s polyester blend is more durable to last through the 100-plus games where it’s used. More useless—but entertaining—facts about the beloved bird in a Pop-Up Video-inspired centrefold
Rodney’s head—made of plastic foam, rubber and cloth—measures 48” around. Common ravens have the largest brain of any bird species.- Beak: 16”
- The suit is washed and cleaned twice annually.
- Rodney’s feet are 15”—which is greater than a man’s size 15 shoe.
- The suit was made by Loonie Times in Toronto. They also created Wolfie for Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, B.C. A custom suit costs $3 to $4K.
- Rodney ruffles feathers. “The number of people that hit on the mascot and the number of guys and girls that give me their numbers in my beak is hilarious,” wearer Merylee Sevilla, BA/11, told The Charlatan.
- Shoes: 7.5” high
- Patches on his knees show that Rodney has had some wear and tear.
- Carleton’s athletics department has two on-call mascots to wear the suit.
- Wearers need to be between 5’4” and 6’ to fit into the suit. Lean people use elastic bands to hide the extra material in the suit.
- Wingspan: 6’6”
- You can’t see it, but Rodney’s head actually includes a tongue—a superfluous detail. It measures 4½”. (By comparison, Gene Simmons, of KISS, reportedly has a seven-inch tongue).
- A fan in the back of the mascot headpiece helps keep the wearer cool.
This is the first time Rodney has appeared in a centrefold. Though an exhibitionistically inclined wearer once launched Rodney into a court-side striptease at a basketball game. He was ejected for fowl play.
Written by Fateema Sayani (BJ/01) Photos by Luther Caverly
This story was published in the Fall 2011 issue.Bookmark the permalink or share the following short URL for this article via social media: http://cualumni.carleton.ca/magazine/?p=1349
