Identity crisis

Forward Steve Danley's broken nose may have only been the second-most troublesome facial adjustment Penn witnessed this weekend.

Minutes before tip-off of the men's basketball against Harvard on Friday, a new Quakers mascot stepped onto the floor, eliciting curious murmurs from the Palestra faithful. It was the second change for the Quaker in about as many years: the previous Quaker was debuted in a September 2004 football game at San Diego.

Instead of the usual broad-smiling Quaker, a more menacing version of the mascot tried to rouse the crowds. Rather than the expected response, the mascot received a reaction that was almost wholly negative.

With such a calculating, even sinister smile, it is hard to see what the Penn athletic department officials saw in the new face of the Quakers.

Dan Flynn, director of marketing, promotions and community affairs, made it clear that the change was primarily a matter of switching mascot suits, not changing the Red and Blue's image. Even though the suits are made to last five to ten years, the old Quaker outfit barely lasted one.

"We made it through football season on borrowed time with the old suit," Flynn said. The new suit "improved many of the design problems we had."

After a series of back-and-forth interactions with Pierre's Costumes -- a locally-run business that has created mascots for Burger King, Nokia, and Fruit of the Loom -- Flynn and the athletic department received artists' conceptions of the new Quaker, but said they did not do justice to the unsightliness of the actual mascot's grin.

"We didn't know what the head was going to look like until it got here," Flynn said, adding that the mascot will not travel with the basketball team this week. "I just saw the costume head by itself ... and it didn't look that bad. [Put together,] it looked odd."

The Penn student section might not be as kind.

The Red and Blue Crew did not accept the new Quaker with open arms, doing more jeering than cheering at the sight of the mascot.

"The new face of the Quakers is pretty ugly," said College senior Brian Walsh, the head of the Red and Blue Crew. "I refuse to interact with it. It'll come over to our group and try to high-five, and I won't touch it until we get the old Quaker" back.

This may be easier said than done.

Given the low quality of the old suit, bringing it back into use seems to be out of the question.

"It was quite uncomfortable for the people inside," said Gail Zachary, Penn's athletic communications liaison. "It really needs some major repair if we're even going to use it for a backup next year."

But just because the jovial Quaker may be dead for now, it does not mean that its gremlin-esque replacement has a permanent home at Penn.

Besides improving the helmet's visibility, Flynn said that "superficial improvements on the way the face looks" are in the works.

However, another happy-go-lucky Quaker may not be in the cards.

"The last mascot was maybe a little too smiley," Flynn said. "I understand that the Quaker is a peaceful person, but it's also the image of our teams. We want ... something a little tougher to be the face of our athletic teams."

A mascot change may not exactly be earth-shattering to the many Penn teams, but the mascot undoubtedly contributes to a team's home court advantage.

And if Penn wants to maximize their advantage, this Quaker may need to change its game face.

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