“Ring out Ahoya” reverberates through the stadium while mascot Iggy the Eagle soars around flapping his wings encouraging the crowd to sing even louder especially for men’s basketball, where you have 17,000 to 18,000 people screaming with Iggy.
From the flash of the blue and gold color smoke bombs at the soccer game and the Gruber Law T-shirt toss at the basketball games, enigmatic Iggy is always the first one on hand to cheer on the various Marquette men’s and women’s athletic teams and pump up the students.
Director of marketing and ticket sales Brian Morgan oversees Iggy the Eagle. Morgan calls Iggy the face of Marquette and hopes to keep the mythical feature of Iggy alive from sporting events to community activities.
“You will never see Iggy at more than one event on campus as it is important to maintain the allure of Iggy,” Morgan says.
Marquette men’s soccer first-year midfielder Mitar Mitrovic says the first time he saw Iggy was when he was working the crowd at a men’s basketball game.
“I think mascots are great because every team has one of their own and it represents the whole college,” Mitrovic says. “Mascots are fun to be around, there is great energy from them.”
It is not just members of the sports teams that enjoy Iggy being at their games, but the fans as well. Not only do the students flock to Iggy, but kids of all ages want to be seen with him. At one of the recent soccer games, Iggy was the goalie and kids were shooting on goal at him. He even made a few saves with the help of its wings.
Iggy, who shall remain anonymous, is full of personality and turns it on at the right time to fit every situation.
“It’s a really unique opportunity to be able to think to yourself and talk to my family and just say, ‘Hey, I’m the Marquette mascot.’ It’s kind of just a cool thing to think about and it’s something I’ll never forget from my time here,” Iggy says.
Matthew Valentino, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, was not aware of Marquette’s mascot before he got on campus.
“I didn’t know Iggy, but thought he was a really cool mascot. I saw him at a (women’s) volleyball game. He was going around taking pictures with all the new students and it made everyone more enthusiastic,” Valentino says.
Lukas Sunneson, a senior forward on the Marquette men’s soccer team, reflects on having Iggy at soccer games.
“I think having Iggy is important for our team. It makes fans come together and join in with the mascot and be more engaged,” Sunneson says. “I don’t notice it when I am on the field, but it definitely makes everyone more involved and that makes a difference.”
Whether it is down at Valley Fields, inside the Al McGuire Center or down at Fiserv Form, Iggy says each venue brings a different experience and some are easier to connect with fans than others.
“If you’re at Fiserv at a men’s game, you’re really hyping up a full arena of people, whereas if you’re at Valley Fields, it’s that more intimate setting where you can have more positive interactions with fans and children,” Iggy says.
Cullen Duffenbach, a sophomore in the College of Engineering, who learned about Iggy at Student Orientation, says Iggy provides an eccentric atmosphere at events outside of Marquette Athletics events.
“If you look at the Marquette basketball record from last year, you can see they did play a lot better at home when they had the student section, and I think Iggy played a big role in that,” Duffenbach says. “I think this is why Marquette lost to Madison last year as they didn’t have Iggy and a big student section cheering them on as the atmosphere was totally different.”
Iggy can be seen out in the community at events, and people can request an Iggy visit to an event. This especially happens in the summer and at unique events too.
“The most common request for Iggy to appear surprisingly is at weddings,” Iggy says. “But there are other summer parades or community activities that are not all on campus.”
Iggy always comes back to roost at Marquette, so see if you can spot Iggy flying around at the next event you attend.
“Every college student is going to have unique experiences in school but being able to call myself Iggy is pretty awesome,” Iggy says.
This article was written by Catherine Fink. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @CatherineFinkMU.
