The American flag is pretty dramatic and powerful as a team symbol. It reminds us of those times when the nation has had to act together as a team. This was true for example during the Second World War. A famous photo, from which a sculpture was made, which you see here on the screen, shows six Marines raising the American flag at Iwo Jima. Three of the six would be dead within a few weeks, so there were powerful feelings associated with the American flag in this instance. But not all symbols of the team as collectivity have this kind of gravitas, this kind of seriousness. On the lighter side is the team mascot. These are common in the world of sports at all levels. For example, my local high school here in Pennsylvania, Strath-Haven High School in Wallingford, has the panther as its mascot. At football games, which are a fairly big deal in my community, some of the high school students, or one of the high school students actually, only one dresses up in a panther costume. In fact, it's a big secret. No one in the school is supposed to know who it is. When the Strath-Haven team scores a touchdown, the panther mascot runs with a huge, large flag in front of the crowd, wildly cheering, there goes the flag, there goes the panther. Mascots are also emblems of the team, as a team. They stand for the team. When I grew up, my team mascot in high school was the knight. We were the Knights of Lincoln-Way, and the image of the knight could be found in various places around the school. It's interesting that team mascots sometimes stand in for the teams in terms of competition. A traditional rivalry in the United States is between the football teams of two of our military academies. Army, which is known officially as the United States Military Academy at West Point, and Navy, known officially as the United States Naval Academy. The mascot of the Army is the mule, like this one, and they don't use someone dressed up as a mule, the mascot is a real mule. Actually, there are several of them. Currently I think the number is three. The Navy mascot is the goat and, again, it's a real goat and in fact a set of goats. There have been many pranks involving the Army and Navy mascots, but perhaps the most memorable one happened back in 1991. It is said to have taken four years of planning, but the Naval Academy students, who are known as the midshipmen, pulled off an amazing caper. They stole the well-guarded American mules. The Navy men were in disguise. They dressed up like Army soldiers, and they used New York license plates, the state where the Military Academy is located. They came to the gates of the West Point military base, and they claimed to be delivering food for the mules. They did have to overpower the Army guards. But finally, they succeeded in loading the mules in a trailer and set off for Maryland where the Naval Academy is located. It proved to be something exciting indeed, like something you only see in the movies. Helicopters were sent out to search and the state police were put on notice. The Navy boys, however, took a preplanned back route. Federal marshals were called, and they were even stationed at the Naval gates and they tried to apprehend the thieves and arrest them. How exciting is that? However, the acting base commander, Lieutenant Angela Smith, notified the marshals that, in fact, they were on Navy property and she had the command. So the Navy boys brought in the Army mules. And a pep rally ensued, a huge pep rally. Talk about emotions. What a coup for Navy. But let's just think about this for a second. This wasn't the Army-Navy football game. This was all about the mascots, the symbols of the two institutions. Of course, I've been talking about the United States here. You'll have to think about whether there is anything like this where you are. I can already tell you though that there probably is. Mascots are found in connection with teams in many parts of the world. Misha, the Russian bear mascot at the 1980 Moscow Olympics for example, was the first mascot to become commercially successful. They sold lots and lots of Misha images. So now that you have a couple of examples of the emotional power of symbols, let's take a closer look at what a symbol is.
