They are improbable American icons: Zippy, Kasey, Moe and Katy. No, those are not the stage names of the infamous stooges of movie and TV fame. They are kangaroo mascots at the University of Akron, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Virginia Military Institute and Austin College in Sherman, Texas.
Maybe it was inevitable that a university in the rubber-manufacturing hub of Akron, Ohio, would embrace an animal with bounce. The University of Akron athletic teams have long been called the "Zips," after rubber boots with zippers. In the 1950s, students voted to create a kangaroo mascot and named it Zippy. In a nod to the region's heritage, Zippy has a rubber pad sewn to the underside of its tail for longer tail life. The popular mascot makes 150 local appearances a year.
All the mascots parade as hermaphrodites--males, often sporting boxing gloves, but with the pouches of females. The confusion can be comic: "A lot of times kids would come up and ask, 'Where's your baby?'" says towering Virginia Military Institute cadet Justin Lewis, who suited up as "Moe" for two years. "They see boxing gloves and it is an open invitation for a fistfight."
Mascot loyalists can be pugnacious as well. University of Missouri-Kansas City officials learned that when they tried to retire "Kasey" a few years ago after the school's athletic teams were upgraded to NCAA Division I status. "The students rose up in rebellion," says university archivist Marilyn Burlingame. "The administration backed down."