The Squirrel Editorial

The Bronco statue gleams in all of its bronze glory, standing tall and proud at the center, or more like the side, of campus. On the other side of campus, an underpaid undergrad in a sweaty mascot costume runs through a screaming crowd of basketball fans, high-fiving students as “Bucky the Bronco.”

I’ve been here for two years and have never seen a horse besides the mascot and our infamous statue. But, I have seen something on campus every day—the campus’s famous, fierce and fiery rodents. I present to you: the Santa Clara Squirrels.

First, why are we the Santa Clara Broncos anyway?

Professor of Philosophy Hubert Flynn, S.J. attended a rodeo in 1923. He saw a horse and thought it was neat, and then our athletics picked it up faster than it dropped football. Thus, we became the Broncos.

When Kim (Malley) Belotti ’79—daughter of Pat Malley after whom Santa Clara University’s Malley Center was named—made a horse head to wear to a basketball game in 1976, the paper-mâché mascot would come to be known as “Benny the Bronco.” Later, the bucking bronco was renamed Bucky when Suzy (Pollack) Loftus ‘96 put on the costume of what would become our school’s mascot.

Despite the history and ever-present statue of Bucky the Bronco, Bucky is irrelevant to our campus. Especially not when we consider the glorious squirrels.

Our squirrels are an inextricable part of campus culture whether you’re walking down Bellomy Street after a late night out, having a quiet moment in the Mission Gardens or holed up in Heafey—engineering prison—Hall, you will cross paths with a squirrel. Screaming, staring and munching on random things—feral squirrels.

The similarities between us and them are uncanny. We’re a small college student, they’re a small animal. We both have a wild sort of look in the eye, especially during midterms and finals. And we both bounce back.

“I saw a squirrel get run over by a skateboard and get back up like nothing happened,” said Fatima Laureano-Maravilla, a junior biochemistry student. “It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Squirrels are resilient, confident and community-oriented. Broncos are fast and strong—which is fine if you want to be basic. But we should strive to be different. We should strive to be more squirrel.

So let me hear you say it: “Goooo Squirrels!”