Rocky, the pride of Slippery Rock University Athletics, was voted as the best mascot in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference last week in a Twitter contest hosted by the conference office.
Rocky collected a total of 406 votes, narrowly beating Bloomsburg University’s mascot, Roongo, and had 100 votes over Indiana University of Pa.’s mascot, Norm.
More than 1,200 votes were sent in via Twitter during the weeklong contest.
“The outpouring of support we received from our fans on Twitter not only proved great for Rocky, but truly showed that Slippery Rock University has one of the best followings and fan bases in the PSAC,” said Jonathan Holtz, SRU Assistant Sports Information Director.
The Twitter competition gave fans from each of the 18 PSAC schools a chance to showcase their school spirit as the fall sport season approaches.
For winning the contest, the PSAC account will change it’s avatar on Twitter to an image of Rocky starting on opening day, Sept. 5.
Nate Merhaut, an exercise science student who graduated in May, was the man beneath the furry costume all last school year.
“I was honored to help Rocky be voted the best mascot in the PSAC and I knew the rock solid fans would pull through,” Merhaut said. “Slippery Rock has the best fans a mascot could as for. The fans were my inspiration and I’ll always call Slippery Rock my home.”
To keep the school spirit going, Rock Athletics is also asking students, faculty, alumni, and fans to wear green and white today for National Wear Your College Colors Day that takes place on college campuses all over the United States.
Twitter users can send pictures of them wearing their school colors to the Rock Athletics twitter with the hashtag #RockNation to be entered into random drawings throughout the day to win Rock Athletics gear and gift cards from the SRU Bookstore.
