Home of Hunter the Hawk

TIFFANY FITZPATRICK

THE SIGNAL

The cheers and excitement pouring from the sea of blue and green in Atrium II during I Heart UHCL Day could have easily rivaled any rumbling stadium.

Students, faculty and staff gathered together in the name of hawk spirit and anxiously awaited the announcement of the new mascot’s name – a closely guarded secret until a team of UHCL community members, decked out in blue and green, spelled it out on stage. Each person held one letter and the crowd was teased with several false names before six letters were finally arranged: H-U-N-T-E-R.

Immediately, the crowd cheered and confetti exploded from above as Hunter the Hawk got on one knee in front of his name before looking back to watch as a banner unrolled announcing UHCL as “Home of Hunter the Hawk and others looking to soar.”

The reveal came after President William Staples took the stage and discussed the significance of the UHCL mascot.

“The last six months have been somewhat historic in the history of UH-Clear Lake,” Staples said. “Most of you will remember that we actually introduced the hawk in April of this year at the Chili Cook-off, but this whole process really started back in fall 2010.”

Staples thanked the Mascot Leadership Team, the Mascot Advisory Team and the Mascot Program Advisory Team for their efforts in bringing the mascot to UHCL.

“We’ve never really had what I would call an official – we’ve had unofficial – but never an official mascot, and so this really is a milestone in the development of UHCL,” Staples said.

Earlier in the presentation, Patrick Cardenas, coordinator of Student Life Student Organizations, announced the winners for the I Heart UHCL spirit competitions. Intercultural Student Services won Best Office for the third year in a row; Student Assistance Center won Best Door; and the winner of the Best Window contest was Academic Records.

Sara Khalifa, coordinator of Orientation and New Student Programs, won the prize for Individual School Spirit and the Group School Spirit award was given to the UHCL Fairies: Julie Garner, accounting major; Mari Martinez, bilingual education major; and Sai Rashmika Velugula, graduate biotechnology student and teaching assistant.

The winners of each category were awarded bright blue, green and white traditional Southern homecoming mums.

I Heart UHCL is an annual event in its fifth year that has changed and grown each year since its inception.

“It has changed over the years,” Cardenas said. “It’s the fifth anniversary. I think this year it’s been taken up a notch. I inherited it around 2011. So, from 2011, 2012 and this year, we’ve been setting the bar a whole new level each time. When it first started out, it was an initiative, it was something to get the campus together in terms of spirit, because we didn’t quite have that being an upper-level institution.”

The event organizers were pleased with this year’s turnout.

“Many people came out to enjoy the activities and events put on by the organizations and the departments and it was just a great way for the entire campus community – faculty, staff, students, even alumni – to come and show their love for our university,” Cardenas said.

David Rachita, interim dean of students, said the enthusiasm at this year’s festivities added to the excitement of finally completing the creation of the mascot.

“You know that was like a two-year process,” Rachita said. “I’m not sure it felt like two years but it felt like we were constantly meeting to talk about it. So, it was nice to finally see it come to fruition and people having fun with it. That is probably what is most exciting, because we spent those two years in committee meetings once a month and there’s a lot of background work people never saw… Now it’s fun to see it come alive; and people really enjoy it. Even ever since the Chili Cook-off, before [the hawk] had a name, people just seem to flock to the hawk – pun intended.”