Blockie’s back and he’s no square
The unofficial mascot of UHCL “Blockie” returned this August via social media. Since then he’s been busy making sure his presence is known to the students/faculty/staff at UHCL.
“Move over Hunter, Blockie is back and here to stay,” Blockie said.
Blockie’s first appeared on campus in 1999 for the university’s “Back to School Bash.” The student committee in charge of organizing the event was playing around with marketing strategies as they worked to come up with a creative way to promote the bash.
Somebody took the university’s square logo and put eyes, legs and arms on it, then somebody else commented on how cool the look was and added a little bit more to it, and before long Blockie was born.
David Rachita, interim dean of students, said Blockie was originally used to market the “Back to School Bash” in the Student Life Office and then, as the years progressed, the office started using Blockie because it was created by students for that program.
“That’s the neat thing about Blockie; students created him,” Rachita said. “It never was the university’s logo; it was never unofficially the university’s logo, but other people started using Blockie for different programs and events.”
When the university decided to become a four-year university by adding freshmen and sophomores in Fall 2014, the question arouse as to how the university was going to promote school spirit and what to do about a mascot on campus.
There was a two-year process to establish the official UHCL mascot. A committee was developed through the Office of the President; it included faculty, staff and students. The committee surveyed the campus community for mascot ideas.
Rachita said the school went through 300 ideas, probably more, to narrow them down to the school’s top three choices, one of those being the hawk. Then there was a final vote among the entire campus community (staff, faculty, students and alumni).
“That’s how the hawk became the mascot of the university,” Rachita said.
When Hunter arrived on campus, Blockie vanished.
Nobody endorsed of Blockie’s return this August, as it was not a university initiative. Nobody gave approval; no one asked; it was just done. In addition to his original Twitter site, Blockie started his own Facebook page to stage his comeback, and now that Blockie is back and attracting a following, he shows no intention of giving up the spotlight to Hunter or anyone else.
Blockie points out Hunter the Hawk did not seem to have a problem replacing him.
“There I was, minding my own business, when some bird waltzes in and takes my spot as UHCL mascot!” Blockie said. “I call foul! But to be honest, I’ve never actually met the guy so who knows. If he’s cool sharing the spotlight with me, maybe he could be my side-kick!”
When Blockie started posting on Twitter and Facebook, he wanted to prove that he was the superior mascot to Hunter the Hawk. He spent a lot of time putting together tweets and posts to attract students to his site. Eventually, someone on Twitter retweeted Blockie’s anime project “The Block Man fears no Hawk” stating he had “never, ever, ever been more proud of the things that come out of my school than this.”
“When I saw what they said, my little Block Heart melted,” Blockie said. “After that, I decided that my new mission was to make everyone as proud of UHCL as that guy was….. and also prove that I am the better mascot! Hopefully, I’m doing a good job.”
With Blockie back in the spotlight, he now has a reason to wear his sunglasses again.
“It’s nice to have the recognition I deserve from UHCL,” Blockie said. “I’ll even overhear people talking about how I made them laugh while walking around the school, and that will just make my day! I hope to get a shout out from President Staples before he leaves. That would make my LIFE!”
Attempts were made to reach out to Hunter the Hawk for a response to Blockie’s return as well as a comment on whether the two could work together or not, but so far Hunter has not responded to those attempts.
Blockie can found through Twitter and Facebook.
