These days, 25 years after it became the campus's official mascot, Sammy the Slug could not be more accepted and beloved. All of the Banana Slug paraphernalia now available can make people forget that this mascot's future once hung on a slender thread of slime.
This year, alumni are pausing to reflect on those days in the mid-1980s, when backers of the then-unofficial UCSC Banana Slug mascot prevailed after a disagreement with campus community members who favored a sea lion mascot.
The Banana Slug mascot story is all about perseverance, creativity, and daring to be different in a world of boring, run-of-the-mill animal mascots.
"The banana slug just suited the campus so well—its symbiotic relationship with the redwoods and its nonviolent Gandhi-an characteristics," said Marc Ratner (Cowell '87, linguistics).
This note appears in the fall 2011 issue of Review magazine.
