Newly elected ASB President Priince Bass shared his interest in changing LBCC’s mascot to the dolphins on May 4.
As of now, no formal proposal has been introduced by the ASB regarding the mascot change.
This would result in Ole the Viking, the school’s founding mascot since 1927, changing to a dolphin tentatively named Danny.
Bass reasoned that the dolphin represented the coastal area associated with Long Beach and appealed to high school graduates. It also connects to the Tongva land the school was built on, whose flag also contains a dolphin.
Bass also felt that a new mascot would represent a larger idea regarding future changes on the campuses.
“Even though there’s a culture with the Vikings here, we’d be showing that we’re not afraid of change. Just because things have been one way for a long time, if there’s a way to improve, we definitely should do it,” Bass said.
Ole’s mascot sightings have been scarce, with his social media activity dropping off completely in 2019, and has mostly been reduced to appearances on flyers around the campuses.
The Viking is often visually associated with the athletics department, which commissioned a redesign for its logo in 2018 and became the department’s first logo to incorporate the imagery of a viking.
Long Beach College Promise partner CSULB underwent mascot changes around the same time as LBCC’s logo update, with its prospector replaced with a shark due to the prospector’s historically negative connotations.
Although he has not given his personal opinion, Superintendent-President Mike Munoz acknowledged the idea and spoke about the consequences as a result of the possible redesign.
“It’s not as simple as flipping a light switch, we’d need to put it to a student vote, but there’s a lot of important things to consider, with branding, sports teams and our 100 year anniversary coming up. We look forward to working with him,” said Munoz.
