Why Tufts Has the Best Mascot
When I decided on Tufts, I was quick to embrace our alluring mascot: Jumbo the Elephant. I was very excited to purchase a hat with an adorable Jumbo silhouette embroidered in light blue, to glue an elephant figurine to my high school graduation cap, and to receive a tabletop Jumbo statue from my dad as a graduation gift. And I still cherish my photo with Jumbo (in mascot suit form) from orientation week. But now that I’ve wrapped up my first year at Tufts, I think I have a deeper appreciation for our mascot and why it’s so special.
My high school graduation cap
On my campus tours, I like to say that while you probably shouldn’t pick your college based on its mascot, Tufts having the best one certainly doesn’t hurt. You might be thinking: claiming that Tufts’ mascot is the best is a bold proclamation. Here’s why I think this statement is, indeed, true!
???? Jumbo actually existed, and was influential.
If you’ve heard the story of our mascot, you’ll know that Jumbo was a real, living elephant, whose stuffed hide was displayed at Tufts after his death starting in 1889, until it was destroyed in a fire in 1975. The remains of Jumbo’s remains, so to speak, are still on campus to this day! Jumbo’s ashes are kept in an emptied-out peanut butter jar on our athletic director’s desk, and his tail, which had fallen off of him before the fire from repeated tugging for good luck, is preserved in our University Archives at the Tufts Archival Research Center in Tisch Library.
As detailed in David Attenborough’s documentary about Jumbo, he was a superstar elephant who captivated the world, though his story is a deeply tragic one. Aside from his fame in the circus, Jumbo led the pack of 21 elephants that walked across the Brooklyn Bridge shortly after its opening to prove its structural stability. It’s also important to note Jumbo’s lasting influence on the English language — the word "jumbo" meaning "large" originates from Jumbo, who was known for his significant size, being the largest known elephant of his time.
???? Elephants are awesome, and a great emblem of Tufts students.
I do have to say, an elephant is a wonderfully unique college mascot (not to mention a specific elephant). While some of our peer institutions have great mascots as well, particularly in our New England Small College Athletic Conference (shout out the Camels and the Mammoths), I don’t think anything can beat an elephant. This Admissions article from 2020 did a great job sharing some fun facts about elephants and how they relate to the Tufts community — but if you’ll indulge me, I would like to share my own take on why an elephant is the perfect metaphor for a Tufts student.
Elephants are obviously big — just like the accomplishments, interests, dreams, and ambitions of Tufts students. But elephants are known to be gentle giants; they are calm and nurturing creatures, despite their potentially intimidating large size. And in my imagination, at least, elephants are quite playful. In a similar way, Tufts students are humble and collaborative. They are intellectually curious, and are supportive of one another.
???? Jumbo and elephants manifest in many whimsical ways across Tufts.
If you visit Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus, it’s hard to miss the 5,000-pound statue of Jumbo, unveiled in 2015 in front of Barnum Hall. The preeminent form of Jumbo on campus, this statue is a perfect photo op, especially for sappy parents after the big drop-off and graduation photos. But there are also other elephants to find as you explore campus: see the Jumbo head looking out from the top floor of Dowling Hall, the elephant sculpture outside of Tisch Library (famous for being printed on our Tufts ID cards), and the tables behind Bendetson Hall, just to name a few.
We love our Jumbo and elephant puns at Tufts! The Tufts University Social Collective — referred to by the acronym TUSC, pronounced “tusk” — is a student organization that hosts social and entertainment events on campus. Ears 4 Peers is our student-run anonymous support hotline, sporting a really cute logo. At Tufts, we refer to our extensive alumni network as The Herd. The name of Tufts’ (awesome) mixed-gender Jewish a cappella group, Shir Appeal, was picked because “shir” means “song” in Hebrew — but it turned out that the name is also a pun on a Hebrew phrase meaning “song of the elephant”! Tufts’ up-and-coming circus arts club is called Jumbo’s Revenge, acknowledging the exploitation that Jumbo faced as a circus animal and committing itself to a future of ethical circus arts.
One of my favorite Jumbo easter eggs was on an exam in CS/MATH 61 (Discrete Mathematics), which I took this past spring. It was a combinatorics question asking how many different ways in which someone could feed Jumbo the elephant series of different fruits. The very entertaining image of an elephant chomping into a watermelon was spinning through my mind for the rest of that exam.
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I hope this gives you a better understanding of Tufts students’ affinity for Jumbo! Not only is our mascot very special, but I feel that it’s embraced by Tufts and its students in a particularly joyful way. I would also invite you to learn more about Jumbo’s artsy sister, Bessie!