One thing HBCUs are known for is their mascot. So, where is Langston University’s lion? Apparently, the king of the jungle went missing and has been gone for years. This has made people on campus ask: Where is Jay the lion?
It is difficult to track the origins of the lion mascot; even when the lion shows up in the yearbooks, he is not there consistently.
In 1986, then-cheerleader sponsor and head of the physical education department, Rozalyn Washington, was responsible for at least one version of the lion mascot, combining a Halloween lion mask with football shoulder pads. “When I was seven years old, I told my mom I wanted to be Lion-O from ThunderCats,” Jason Washington, Rozalyn Washington’s son, said, “And she pretty much gave me the lion mask she had for Langston.”
Jason was also the Langston mascot when he was 13, going into the year 2000. “My mom was the cheerleader sponsor, so I would just randomly do it when she asked.” Jason performed off and on as the mascot. He would do it for a couple of games, and then years later, he would come back and do it again when he was sixteen. His last years as the mascot were between 2002-2003.
Different people served as the mascot on a volunteer basis. This is part of the reason why the mascot didn’t show up consistently.
Rozalyn said, “There was a football player that wasn’t eligible and just wanted to be with his team mates so he was a mascot for a football game.”
Rozalyn also said the mascot was vulnerable during football games, “The hardest part about being the lion was you could not move around well … The local kids would attack the lion and take the treats he might have for the crowd,” Rozalyn said. At one point, according to Rozalyn, Ms. Pam Fisher helped with getting another lion head with a cooling fan in it. She believes that the athletic department ordered the full, official mascot suit in 1995.
Jojo Wood is a Langston alumni and member of the National Langston Alumni Association Facebook group. He claimed in a poast that the last person to wear the lion was Richard Jones in 2015.
“After he was the mascot the suit was lost. Over the years we’d find random pieces to the suit but never the entire thing. I don’t remember if it was the end of that fall semester or spring 16 but he never returned to campus,” wrote Wood.
According to Wood, “After it was lost, a student expressed a desire to have the mascot again but we could never produce either the suit or the funds to have a new one. Some of us began wearing lion onesies and masquerading as makeshift mascots.”
Professor Nique Block, a Langston University alumni who teaches behavioral and social sciences, said the mascot has always been start and stop.
“This semester is the most I’ve heard about us having a mascot,” Block said. “It stated at the Langston vs Grambling game, Grambling had there tiger mascot and he was taunting us and said ‘Where ya’ll mascot, ya’ll can’t afford one?’”
Block has discussed bringing the mascot back as a part of the band. He thinks that the mascot will be in good hands with the band because of the money the band brings in. His plan is to raise money to get Jay the lion back and also possibly have a female lion mascot as well.
“It is important that we do that so we can get our pride back on campus. It would be nice to bring back our lion,” he said, also suggesting improvements to the white house on campus.
As time goes on we will see if students and staff can actually bring back our lovable lion to Langston.
Anthony Henry
Anthony Henry is a staff reporter for the Langston University Gazette. He is also a sophomore broadcast journalism major. He covers all topics for the gazette and he feels it is very important that everyone’s stories and experiences gets told. He believes that what he does matters because journalism is the only profession mentioned in the first amendment. He believes in freedom of the press and storytelling. Henry is in the band where he is a drum major and saxophone player. He can be reached at anthony.c.henry@langston.edu
