Gunston Sleeps With The Fishes

The folks over at The Realests are claiming victory today, saying that they have taken out the mascot of an NCAA Basketball Final Four school in a bloodless coup. We're referring of course to Gunston, the green, furry, Muppet-like creature who until recently was the costumed mascot of George Mason University. The Realests launched a scathing attack on Gunston in late March — among the charges that the mascot was confusing, pointless and downright depressing — and apparently GMU agrees, dismissing the mascot on Monday.

One real problem with Gunston; Gunston did absolutely nothing to inspire fans. Said Associate Athletic Director for Marketing Andy Ruge to the Washington Post: "We need to develop a mascot with a strong image. It would be nice if a freshman could see him and go, 'Hey, that's our mascot' instead of going 'What's that?' " Ruge stressed that Gunston wasn't being "offed," but just reassigned "to children's functions." Ah, good ol' nightmare fuel.

By the way, this isn't Gunston (it's the Cavaliers' mascot Moondog), but we found it in the same Realests post and it's the funniest thing we've seen all day.

Main Mascot, Gunston, Looks Like A Goner [Washington Post] Gunston: George Mason's Bastard Child [The Realests]