My campus mascot is the Scarlet Raptor. It hasn't always been so. For many years, we were the Rutgers-Camden Pioneers and our mascot was Calistoga the Calistoga Wagon. It was rather hard for folks to get excited about a crudely drawn wagon. No alumnus or staffer here dating back to the 1950's remembers t-shirts or other spirit merchandise bearing the mascot or even logo. It appears in a few yearbooks, but that's about it. There was just no spirited identification with the school. Along came the late 1990's and the three Rutgers campuses decided to update their logos and images along the Scarlet theme. Rutgers-New Brunswick remained the Scarlet Knights and Rutgers-Newark changed from the Red Raiders to the Scarlet Raiders (not too much of a change). But, things were different for Rutgers-Camden. Cal Maradonna, then our Associate Provost for Student Life and someone who is said to "bleed Rutgers," saw this as an opportune time to update our lifeless mascot to something a bit more... daunting, dazzling, and debonair (our mascot even has a specially made tuxedo for formal occasions).
       As I've heard it, many mascots were considered before Cal and the committee chosen to help with the selection decided on the Scarlet Raptor. They had only a few weeks to come up with the new mascot, but they worked quickly. They wanted a mascot no other school had and one that would simultaneously stir up some good old-fashioned school pride. The other teams with the name Raptor in them are based on dinosaurs rather than birds of prey, so it's certainly unique. Among the other mascots the committee considered? The Scarlet Sharks, Scarlet Fever, Scarlet Flames, and they even "kicked around a very short time" the idea of the Scarlet Pioneers.. They settled on the Scarlet "Raptor" versus a particular species because our Raptor is a more of a composite bird of prey.
       After much fanfare and anticipation, the Scarlet Raptor was unveiled to the campus on September 17th, 1997. I must admit, the Scarlet Raptor was a hit from the very beginning. The campus started creating items with the Raptor theme and they literally flew off the shelves (no pun intended). I've seen hundreds of different items, ranging from notebooks to calendars to t-shirts to pennants with our lovable mascot on them. They even put out rather nice letterman's jackets with the new mascot embroidered on them. The very first spirit item bearing the Raptor logo was a lapel pin featuring the original logo created for us by the company that worked with the campus on the scarlet theme move.
       At one point, Cal decided to order some little plush mascots. When the first batch of plush Raptors arrived, they were an immediate hit. Everyone wanted one and some people wanted two. They had ordered 1000 of them, but realized with dismay when they arrived that the manufacturer had made some unauthorized substitutions. The shipped birds had white feet and bright yellow eyes, leading Dean Margaret Marsh to call them "Scarlet Chickens," and others to call them "Scarlet Parrots." Whatever they were, they were not Scarlet Raptors, so back into the shipping boxes for the long trek back to the warehouse they went, but a few were kept out to distribute at a board of governor's meeting at which they had been promised and to excited staffers who somehow cajoled them out of Cal's hands. Those few pseudo-Raptors are quite collectible now. When the new, authorized ones, arrived, they were handed out at sporting and campus events, much to the delight of the recipients. At the first Midnight Madness event after the arrival of the authorized plush raptors, the cheerleaders and others tossed them into the crowd to those who were particularly spirited, creating quite a stir. I have never heard it that loud in the gym with folks yelling "Yay, go Raptors," "Go Rutgers," and other spirit chants. It was a small, but mighty crowd that night. Cal also distributed quite a number of them to individuals who agreed to take their Raptors on trips and take photos of them. Cal called the project “Raptors around the world.” Try taking Calistoga the wagon on your next trip; that would sure rule out traveling light…
       Mine is a rather well traveled Raptor. He’s* accompanied me both far and wide and was even kidnapped once by my father (and wasn’t returned until I promised to deliver a plush Raptor on my next visit). I must admit that sometimes it’s been a bit hard to convince my fellow travelers that I don’t belong in an institution when I pull out a stuffed Raptor and ask them to pose for photos, but overall, it’s been a fun project. Here are some photos of my Raptor on his many travels. If you right-mouse click on any of the photos, you can see the full-size originals.

When visiting a friend in 2000, she showed me her ornate centuries-old Japanese wooden birdcage. I'm not sure which one of us first thought of photographing my Raptor inside, but here's the result! Given the cage's delicate construction, my Raptor is the only bird that will ever be allowed in this particular cage. I think the ivory accents near the door bring out the Raptor's color quite well.
	There's nothing in the world like a wall of Indonesian masks in California with an interloper Raptor along for the ride.
In summer of 2002, I took my Raptor to a Sundance ceremony. Since it is culturally inappropriate to take any photos at a Sundance, I took this photo well outside the area where the ceremony took place. Several eagles circled overhead, so we knew it was a good place to be.
	While on a road trip in traditional Plains lands in 2002, my family stopped to make many offerings of tobacco ties for peace and for my ailing mother (these ties are made of traditional tobacco wrapped in small pieces of red cloth that are tied onto certain trees). On the first cottonwood tree I found that contained only our own bundles, I posed my Raptor on one of the branches for a quick photo before we went on our way. The other trees had brightly colored ribbons and strips of cloth tied to them in addition to tobacco bundles. The cottonwood tree is considered quite sacred and so visitors will see many of them dripping with offerings.
One of our goals in the plains was to visit the Big Horn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming, a sacred site to many Native American nations. It's now a National Historic Landmark. It was a truly awe-inspiring place. The guard there even opened up the fence surrounding the wheel and agreed to roust all the tourists so we could do what we needed to do there in privacy (then he left). After we were done, I noticed my Raptor was still in my pocket from the day's travels, so I popped him on a rock facing away from the sacred Medicine Wheel as there were many offerings made by others at the Wheel.
	No tourist trip to the Black Hills would be complete without stopping briefly to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. That blurry red spot in the photo is my Raptor. The Crazy Horse Memorial was started in 1948 by Korczak Ziolkowski, a Polish sculptor who originally worked on Mount Rushmore, and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear, who approached Ziolkowski about the idea of carving a memorial to the great men of the Native Americans. Ziolkowski devoted the rest of his life to the carving, which is still in progress.
This was a hard photo to take. There must have been a gazillion tourists there snapping photos of Mount Rushmore and here's some crazy woman with a stuffed red bird trying to shove her way to the front of the crowd to delicately balance the bird on a railing for a photo. We made it and here's the photo.
	At Mount Rushmore, one of the attractions is the "Avenue of Flags," which hosts the flags of all U.S. states and territories. Walking along the Avenue was a fellow dressed like Abraham Lincoln, talking with tourists and posing for photos. I hopped over to him with my Raptor and asked for a quick snapshot of just him and the Raptor. At first, he said it was the oddest request he had received, but then he admitted he had no room to quibble as he was impersonating a fellow long since deceased.
While on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, we visited the Wounded Knee Memorial. On the way in, I snapped a photo of Professor Jamie Moran of London's Roehampton University holding my Raptor. Dr. Moran is also a sub-chief in the Cante Tinze (Brave Hearts) Warrior Society of the Oglala Lakota at Pine Ridge. The photo is dark because we had to get there quite early to beat the tourists so we could pray and reflect on the memorial in peace.
	My Raptor likes to hang out with other important folks, too. Most of the time, I get the brush off (usually just looks that are easily interpreted as, "What do you want?"), but Dr. Henry Rhodes, formerly of the Manhattan Project (that designed the atomic bomb during WWII) graciously agreed to pose with our mascot. Dr. Rhodes is a truly charming person, but make sure to take your dictionary along because his vocabulary is certainly SAT-test-on-steroids quality! Dr. Rhodes is one of only two surviving scientists on the Project.
Raptors love roses, right? Well, mine does. This is a rosebush in southern California during December, yes December.
	Forget "Raptors around the world," how about "Raptors on the world"? This is my Raptor poised on a lovely stone inlaid globe.
My Raptor spends all his Christmas holidays at my father's home in southern Mexico where it's sunny and warm. This is him lounging on a cactus in my father's yard (can one truly lounge on a cactus?). This was the year my Raptor was kidnapped (2000). As I packed for my return to the United States, I realized I couldn't locate him. After much prodding and my promises to return with an identical Raptor the following year, my father finally admitted to secreting my Raptor to a safe location behind the television set under a box.
	Here's the Raptor-napper himself posing with my Raptor, just days before the kidnapping. Those of you with Raptors of your own, do not leave them unattended around this fellow!
Unlike his feathered cousins, Scarlet Raptors are afraid of nothing, not even the occasional giant feline. Here's my Raptor dwarfed by one of my father's cats.
	We took my Raptor whale watching in southern Mexico. A great time was had by all as we encountered huge pod of whales. We rode along with them for several miles while they repeated surfaced to snorkel and sometimes fluked us with their tails.
While visiting my mother in northern Mexico in 2002, her friend's grandson and I went after supplies. It proved to be a Kodak moment. That's my Raptor trying to keep all those eggs warm while the grandson hams for the camera. The shopkeeper thought us quite the crazy couple and gave us lots of space for the remainder of our visit.
	We took my Raptor to a fair in northern Mexico. He's poised on the employee's left shoulder (she was quite a good sport about posing with the Raptor and thought him quite a cutest thing she had seen in a while). That's my mother on the far right and her good friend Barb on the left (the grandmother to the fellow above)..
Here's my Raptor at the US/Mexico boundary near San Diego, CA. We were still on the Mexican side when I snapped the photo. I then stashed him on the seat because I had left his passport at home and didn't want any border trouble.
	In 2003, I took the Raptor to the Navajo reservation with me. While there, I was working with the Navajo Nation Law Enforcement Rangers. Here's my Raptor perched on one of their duty trucks.
Camels graze in the background as one of my students, James White, holds my Raptor in rural Mongolia in 2005. Being red, which is a sacred color in Mongolia, the Scarlet Raptor was a hit on that trip.
	My Raptor at a gazebo at the ManManzushir Monastery in Mongolia in 2005. You might have to enlarge the photo to see the Raptor; he's on the front most railing.
	Great Wall of China photo #1. It was a hot summery day in June of 2005 as we trekked up the Great Wall. Though outfitted with lots of water, it was still an arduous journey. Partway up to the top of the section we were on, I felt too exhausted to continue. I took a photo of my Raptor, and then handed him off to a fellow traveler with directions to take him to the top and get a photo there. My fellow travelers offered to rest with me a few minutes then we would strike out again, and I agreed to do so. This one looks good in full-size mode.
My Raptor at top of the Great Wall of China. As you can see, I didn't wimp out and actually made it to the top. Only four of us did so, including retiring professor Bob Ryan, on whose shoulder the Raptor is sitting. To think that Bob out climbed nearly all the youngpup students is amazing. I was too tired to bear the weight of the Raptor, so Bob volunteered.
	My Raptor accompanied my students and me to Usti Nad Orlici in the Czech Republic to meet with police officials there. Here are two of the students, Tracy and Erica, posing with my Raptor on the train ride. This photo is from 2006.
Here's another one of those shots that got me some intense stares. We were on the northern side of the Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic. I slipped up to the rail, asked everyone to clear away for just a minute, then pulled out my trusty Raptor for a quick photo or two. I'm not sure from where the group I rousted hailed, but I'm sure there are stories floating around their country about the crazy American and her red bird. If you look at the full-size version of this photo, you can see some of the gorgeous buildings that make Prague such a popular destination.
	Here, my Raptor enjoys a rather small cup of java with retired Temple University historian Dr. Herb Ershkowitz at a London cafe. Though his campus mascot is the owl, Dr. Ershkowitz is quite tolerant of Scarlet Raptors.
A few photos of our Scarlet Raptor
	Wait, who's that peeking out from behind the door? That's the first official appearance of the Raptor mascot, at the Raptor Rage event on November 15, 2001. We fans were excited to finally get a glimpse of our mascot costume. See the gal in the red Raptor Rage shirt on the Raptor's left? She's an important part of the picture. The Raptor costume had been tried out that August for the first time by Cal Maradonna at an event at Campbell's Field (AKA the Riversharks Stadium), who nearly tripped over a tiny tot blocked from his view by the costume's design. Now, the costumed Raptor is seldom seen without a sidekick/guide nearby. Of interest, Cal is the only person known by the general public to have worn the mascot costume. The actual mascots themselves are sworn to secrecy about their undercover identities; both men and women have served as mascots. I have ascertained the identities of two of them, one male and one female, but I'm not sharing! Besides, I'm not 100% certain...
Here's the Raptor greeting the crowd during a break in the Raptor Rage event. S/he is wearing the first of three costumes acquired for our mascot. The Raptor also has a tuxedo for formal gathering and a Hawaiian shirt for informal events. There's even a plush Raptor available wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Tom DiValerio, an associate dean in the Campus Center and longtime Rutgers-Camden staffer, is the one who designed the Raptor's wardrobe.
	When Fran Lawrence retired from the campus presidency in 2002, the Raptor made a surprise visit to our commencement ceremony to present Dr. Lawrence with a jersey from our campus (to which he retired). I didn't know they made graduation robes big enough for the Raptor! You can see Dr. Lawrence behind the Raptor while our then provost Roger Dennis introduces the bird who needs no introduction. The crowd had gone crazy when the Raptor stepped onto stage-- they do love their mascot!

Do you have photos of your Raptor around the world? If so, send them to me at and I'll post them here!