The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

The Student News Site of Malvern Preparatory School

Friar's Lantern

Malvern debuts new mascot

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On Friday, October 13, Auggie Tolentine was introduced to the Malvern Prep community at the Spirit Day and Pep Rally festivities.

With a packed O’Neill gymnasium, Auggie Tolentine donned his costume for the first time on Friday, October 13 and took the floor. It was his formal introduction into the Malvern community, and the reviews on this newest addition were mixed.

Auggie’s here! See him at Homecoming this weekend! #GoFriars

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As reported in a Friar’s Lantern article last May, Malvern raised funds to purchase a new costume for the mascot at last year’s B.A.S.H. The previous costume was the same one used in the early 1980s and was getting older every day.

According to Mr. Chuck Chinici, Malvern’s first ever mascot was debuted in the mid 1970s and another one was made a couple years later.

“Around 1983, we came up with the mascot we have had up until now,” Chinici said. “He was a standard at many Malvern events. He was a very visible mascot and was seen at all of the pep rallies and games.”

The latest mascot was designed by the same person who designed the original Phillie Phanatic costume, according to Chinici.

“We sent the designer multiple drawings, and he came up with what eventually became the Friar costume,” he said. “We had two different Friars when we first introduced it. There was the happy Friar and the angry Friar.”

The Friar of the early eighties was debuted in a similar way to which this year’s mascot was, minus the social media teaser posts which appeared on Malvern Prep’s instagram feed in 2017. Chinici said that the mean Friar was introduced in front of the entire school at a pep rally before a big game.

“The mean Friar was used to provide an extra ‘umph’ to a team when they needed it for a big game,” he said.

This Friar costume turned 34 years old this past year. That means he was double the age of most students in the senior class. Because of this, it came as no surprise as to why many people did not want to put on the costume.

“I definitely would not have wanted to put the old costume on. I can only imagine how gross it must have been inside of it,” senior Tim McLaughlin said.

Chinici agreed with this being the reason why the mascot’s number of public appearances began to diminish over the past couple of years.

“Over the years, students would less and less be willing to get in the costume. We had to get the mask redone multiple times, and the costume was placed away. After this, if students did want to wear the costume for a Friday night game, no one knew where it was,” Chinici said.

The decision to purchase a new Friar costume came last May and the actual costume came a couple of weeks into the school year. The design is of a younger, more athletic looking Friar with a brand new mask, hands, feet, and robe.

“I think that the design for the mascot is pretty cool,” senior Patrick Keenan said. “I like how it has a more muscular build and looks more intimidating than the old one.”

However, not all students thought the new design was so great.

“I didn’t really like the new mascot design. I thought that its smile was very creepy and strange looking,” junior Andrew Curran said.

The name for this new mascot is Auggie Tolentine, representing both St. Augustine and St. Nicholas of Tolentine, an Augustinian Friar whom the longstanding Tolentine Hall is named after.

Not any student can volunteer to be Auggie. Tryouts were held to qualify for the position. Chinici said that there will be a group of students who will be the Friar.

The plan is for the new Friar to be more prevalent at events held on campus. This is part of the reason why Malvern got the new costume in the first place.

“It depends on the student, but I think that you can expect the Friar to be at many of the football, basketball, and maybe hockey games,” Chinici said.

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