W&M seeking a new mascot

The College of William and Mary is looking for a new mascot.

The college lost the feathers on its logo a few years back, and the unofficial Colonel Ebirt has been quietly retired.

So W&M has appointed a committee and set up a Web site, http://www.wm.edu/mascot, to solicit community input for a new symbol to represent the nation's second-oldest college. Terry Driscoll, director of athletics, is the committee chairman.

W&M hopes to have selected the mascot by Homecoming next fall. It can be an animal, mineral, vegetable -- or whatever -- but it must not violate NCAA guidelines.

The NCAA, which governs college sports, forced W&M to drop the feathers from its logo in 2006. The logo, two feathers with an interlocking W and M, was deemed potentially offensive.

The NCAA said the nickname "Tribe" paired with the feathers violated restrictions on the use of American Indian imagery.

W&M will continue to use the featherless Tribe even when the new mascot is found, said college spokesman Brian Whitson.

Colonel Ebirt -- that's Tribe spelled backward -- had a different problem.

The undistinguished, greenish blob wearing a tricorn hat just never caught on, Whitson said. -- Karin Kapsidelis