There's no such thing as a grey gorilla

Lest we forget that this is Gorilla Blog after all, I am introducing the official college football team of Gorilla Blog: The Pittsburg State Gorillas! As far as I know, Pitt St. is the only school in the country that has a Gorilla as its mascot, and as you can see from their logo, it’s a pretty fierce looking one too. In addition to having the best mascot in the world (sorry Hokie Bird), Pitt St. has a pretty good football team – one that is the winning-est program in Division II history. They’ve also won National Championships three times: 1957, 1961, and 1991. In 2004 they finished the season 14-1, their only loss being to Valdosta State in the National Championship game.

Pittsburg State (located in Pittsburg, KS) has an enrollment of about 6,500 students, and was founded in 1903. They adopted the Gorillas as their mascot way back in the 1920’s, and their current mascot, named Gus, was born in 1985. (Not literally born, as they don’t have a real gorilla on their sidelines. That would be silly. Everyone knows gorillas like to watch football from the luxury boxes.) Some of their notable alumni include Lon Kruger (NCAA basketball coach, currently at UNLV), Dennis Franchione (NCAA football coach, who most recently lost his job at Texas A&M), James Tate (1992 Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry), and Gary Busey (mediocre actor and crazy person extraordinaire). And yes, I got all of this off of Wikipedia.

2008 could be a good year for the Gorillas. They’re starting off #17 in the Division II Coaches poll, and they return 14 starters from the squad that went 8-3 last year. Their schedule will have a few potholes to overcome, including games against #3 Northwest Missouri State, #7 Nebraska-Omaha, and #9 Chadron State. Their first game, on Aug. 30 against Central Oklahoma, should be an easy win. During the season I’ll have weekly updates on the Gorillas as they pursue Division II glory. And stay tuned for my Division I-A college football preview before the start of the season on 8/28.