Rocky the YellowJacket: The Rochester Mascot

Full disclosure: I love mascots.

I still remember having my Buffalo Bills plush buffalo and a Baltimore Orioles stuffed animal in my room and prominently displayed when I was growing up. For those who are wondering what a Rochester-born kid would be doing with an Orioles mascot, the Rochester Red Wings were the Orioles farm team for many years. So when I go to a sporting event, one of my favorite parts of the experience (when I was a kid and as an adult) has been seeing the home team’s mascot do whatever crazy dance or cheer they do to get the home crowd riled up.

Back in 2008, Rocky became the new University of Rochester mascot after a campus-wide vote, and URBee (UR’s former mascot) was retired as a Mascot Emeritus. Since then, I have been hoping to get my hands on a stuffed animal version of Rocky to have on my desk next to URBee. You might be able to guess I was quite excited when I saw a stuffed Rocky appear in the University bookstore a few weeks back. Now that I was finally in possession of a stuffed Rocky, I felt it was only proper to bring him on the road with me to New York City so he could get off campus and meet with some prospective students and UR alumni.

Here’s a brief photo summary of some of what Rocky and I did over our few days in NYC:

Rocky and me with several students from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.

Lindsay Sable ’10 took Rocky sightseeing at Radio City Music Hall.

After a long day, Rocky spent time in our hotel room catching up on all of his fan mail.