Amherst College announces the Mammoths as first official mascot … – Boston.com

After officially dumping their unofficial mascot last year, Amherst College announced the schools first official mascot Monday. And it turns out that Russian scientists arent the only ones who want to bring back woolly giants from the Ice Age.

Thats correct after more than 9,000 votes from alumni, students, and faculty, Amherst Colleges new mascot is the Mammoths.

School officialsannouncedthey would be solicitingsuggestions for a mascot last October. In January 2016, thecollege decided to stop referencing their longtime unofficial moniker, Lord Jeff, amid student protests over the eponymous 18th-century British generalsadvocacy of using of smallpox as germ warfare against Native Americans.

Amherst College finds itself in a position where a mascotwhich, when you think about it, has only one real job, which is to unifyis driving people apart because of what it symbolizes to many in our community, Cullen Murphy, the chair of the schools board of trustees, said at the time.

Following more than 2,000 mascot submissions last fall (includingstrong pushes for Moose and Hamster, the latter of which is an anagram of Amherst), aselect group of alumni and students eventually narrowed it down to five finalists: the Fighting Poets, the Mammoths, Purple and White, the Valley Hawks, and the Wolves.

Over 11 days in late March, the Mammothswon out with4,356 of 9,295 total votes.

You thought they were extinct? Think again, the school said in an announcement video Monday.

In a statement announcing the decision Monday, the school cited submissions that characterizedthe prehistoric creatureas an impressive, stupendous and monumental and near mythic mascot optionthat would speak to Amherst as fierce competitors but also highly social, herbivorous animals suggesting gentleness.

They also noted that Amherst CollegesBeneski Museum of Natural History houses a Colombian mammoth skeleton (pictured in the above video) that was discovered by one of the schools professors.

Affection for Amherst and belief in what our College represents motivated our committee during this entire process and we welcome the mammoths as the new mascot for Amherst College, the schools mascot selection committee wrotein a statement.

According to the school, the new mascot will debut this upcoming fall.

Itll be quite the matchup if Amherst ever travels out to compete against Indiana UniversityPurdue University Fort Wayne.

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Amherst College announces the Mammoths as first official mascot ... - Boston.com