For the love of Larry: Are we really ready to lance no more?
By Erin Kroncke, Michael Leyva
PCC’s formally famous mascot Larry the Lancer will be replaced by an elusive horse, leaving some dismayed and others delighted.
For many schools the mascot is representative of the school’s everlasting spirit, carried on from generation to generation. Oftentimes when you think of certain teams, it’s their bulbous fuzzy representatives that come first to mind. These characters have the ability to inspire teams and rouse crowds. For PCC, our mascot has been missing from our most momentous games and events.
Siria LoVett, an administrative assistant at the office of student life on campus, had hand picked Larry and is an integral part of his existence here at PCC. LoVett was the cheer coach in the early 2000’s at PCC and requested a mascot to perform with the cheer team.
“I actually became the cheer coach in the fall of 2002, and we had a cheer and dance team,” LoVett said. “Coming from the south and Midwest we had mascots and stuff and they didn’t have anything here.”
Dr. Steven Johnson was LoVett’s Dean during that time period and had given her the green light to pursue the purchase of a mascot. Pasadena’s Trojan colors prompted LoVett to stay on theme with the school while she looked through the book of potential characters and decided the red headed scowler was the best fit.
“That was the best one I could find, either you’re going to have a really goofy one or a mean one,” LoVett said. “Yeah, Larry has a little funny look to him, some kids were scared and some kids ran up to him but after they saw that Larry was nice, everyone played around with Larry.”
Guiding Larry through the halls of PCC, he’s either met with complete horror or he incites sheer fanfare, with a crowd of selfie seeking supporters. The crotchety grimace of the furry faced fellow startled students looking up from their phones. Larry is an unknown in the PCC sphere. Even Jing Li, the student who petitioned to replace him with a horse, had never laid eyes on the ginger until recent days.
“The horse felt more inclusive,” Li said. “It really felt like a mascot, when you put a human figure behind it it felt a little off. Happy to see him back, haven’t seen him for two years.”
Once the cheer and pep squad departed PCC due to financial reasons, Larry’s social engagements dwindled dramatically. LoVett explained that she had difficulty finding prospective performers to don the big headed lancing larper.
“I quit being the cheer coach in 2014 and Larry had probably left two years [before], I would get people to wear it every now and again,” LoVett said. “So all these new students, of course [they’ve] never seen Larry.”
In early December, Larry made an appearance during a practice for the volleyball team. Lindsay Delgadillo noticed the foul-faced fellow and darted to him for a selfie. His emergence in the gym felt more like a joyous reunion rather than a first meeting. The team welcomed the mascot with open arms and were so delighted with his presence, they briefly included him in a game.
Now Larry spends most of his days in a locker in the office of student life, unless he is requested temporarily for an event, which is a large part of why a portion of PCC students and staff were unaware of his situation of being replaced by a horse.
Students’ reactions on whether or not to keep the Lancer have been mixed. Some feel that Larry is too scary and others find charm in his hostile expression. Anthony Borja, a student at PCC, is one of the many that are in favor of keeping the lancer even though he found Larry’s eyes to be slightly startling.
“I think the lancer is kind of cool, not gonna lie,” Borja said. “Plus there’s already a horse mascot, Cal Poly has a horse mascot, the mustangs.”
Alexander James, is another student in favor of keeping the lancer but possibly changing the facial structure of Larry’s bellicose death stare.
“I definitely say it’s cool to keep it,” James said. “But [it’s probably] refreshing [to] try something a little bit more friendly. Because it does look kind of aggressive. If I saw that coming up to me I’d be terrified, if I didn’t know it was the school mascot.”
In Larry’s heyday he would travel with the cheer squad and attend cheer camp in Santa Barbara. LoVett emphasized how excited the squad was those two times Larry had attended because most two year colleges didn’t have a mascot and they were thrilled to show that PCC did.
“I remember Larry did really well at the cheer camp,” LoVett said. “Funny story, what they do is they make the mascots do these performances at the end. So I know Larry was participating, dancing and doing all that. So that was funny. I don’t remember the routines and dances but I remember we were cracking up because they were supposed to do all these funny skits and that was the first time we were able to see our mascot learning from these top notch mascots.”
Wearing Larry is no easy feat. LoVett explains that the costume is hot and the job is far from glamorous.
“It’s a hot, hard job but they just wanted to do it,” LoVett said. “It was always a student that was willing and somewhat outgoing because you gotta be somewhat outgoing to want to put on this costume and talk to everyone and not be afraid to be goofy.”
According to Li, the horse is set to appear next fall but whether the horse will spark the school spirit Larry was able to trigger is still up for debate. For now, he will sit in a box waiting for the next brave soul to pop on the legendary Larry, the ludicrous lancer.
