Draft:Peter the Anteater

Early History

In the fall of ‘65, Pat Glasgow ‘68, Bob Ernst ‘67, and Schuyler Hadley Bassett III ‘70 were freshmen playing water polo at the newly established UC Irvine campus. 12 days after the beginning of the academic year, UCI's Men's Water Polo team defeated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in front of a crowd of 900 students.^[1] To rally the student body over the triumph, the school knew it was time to decide on a mascot character.

Peter the Anteater’s origins can be traced to the prior summer, before UCI had even opened. Pat Glasgow was working as a lifeguard at Newport Beach when the idea came to him out of the blue. “It was the ’60s. I was part of a generation that questioned everything. So I wasn’t thinking about a traditional mascot, like Tommy the Trojan or a bear. Don’t ask me how or why, but the word ‘anteater’ just came to me.” ^[2]

Glasgow, Ernst, and Bassett held an unofficial vote at a school dance in favor of the anteater, but university administrators insisted on a formal campuswide election pitting Peter against more conventional mascots. “A lot of people thought we were turning the mascot into a farce,” Glasgow says. “But the anteater was just an antihero. He was kind of standing up for passiveness. But when backed into a corner, anteaters will fight.”

Opposing freshmen petitioned to add more mascot choices. Joining the anteater on the ballot with the required 100 signatures each were the seahawk, roadrunner, the unicorn, and “none of these.” Students also advocated for the alligator, the bearcat, the mariners, the golden eagle, and the centaur—all of which lacked enough signatures.

One pre-election night in Bassett’s dorm room that may or may not have involved beer, Glasgow says, the students drew an anteater based not on Johnny Hart's comic strip B.C. but on a somewhat less wholesome symbol: the Playboy bunny. Bassett even copyrighted the image of “Peter Playboy” sporting a bow tie and rabbit ears.

“We mimeographed 200 copies, distributed them around campus, and they disappeared immediately,” Glasgow says. “Students were using them to decorate their dorm rooms and notebooks.” ^[4] As fans of Hart’s comic, which featured an anteater character, they used the character’s design to promote the anteater mascot further. Hart would later enthusiastically agree to let his character be the model for Peter the Anteater.

Mascot election day was held on November 30, 1965. With a 56% majority of students’ votes, the anteater was elected as the official UCI mascot.^[5]

Campus Culture

Johnny Hart’s "B.C." comic strip served as a huge inspiration for student culture at UCI. In addition to being the model for the school mascot’s design, the anteater’s iconic “ZOT” became the official “war cry” of students. “Zot” would become synonymous with UCI. The campus has embraced the mascot with Zotmail, anteater statues, a campus store called the Zot-N-Go, and a student spirit group known as the Antourage.^[6] The student bookstore, The Hill, also receives its title from the suggested common area name “The Anthill.”

Campus marketing and chants had also introduced the shortened “Eater” commonly heard at sporting events. Another common phrase at sports events is “Rip ’Em Eaters.” This phrase comes from the anteater’s natural defensive stance, as it stands on its hind legs with its tail as a balance. In this tripodal position, the anteater will stretch its arms out, putting on display its full size and threatening claws, which are used to “rip” at its enemies. ^[7]