Why is a Golden Hurricane? Elusive “Golden Hurricane” Gus-T emotes at a football fan tucollegian | Collegian
The golden hurricane, unlike the fire tornado (another cool sounding meteorological event), does not exist. And furthermore, hurricanes do not usually strike Tulsa — it is probably because of all our hills which block them out. So why on earth are all of the University of Tulsa’s athletic teams called the Golden Hurricanes? And why is the logo a flag, and not a hurricane?
Well it all began with a copyright problem. In the stone ages (a little over one hundred years ago) the football team was called a variety of fun, if uninspired, nicknames like the Kendallites and the Tigers, which was due to their orange and black uniforms at the time. Except then they switched to yellow and black uniforms, so the Tigers was out. That is when Head Coach Howard Archer came up with the idea of the Golden Tornadoes, supposedly just out of how they “swept through opponents” and not the obvious connection between Oklahoma and tornadoes. The only problem was that Georgia Tech had already taken that name. To avoid the mixup, Archer thought long and hard about what other types of terrifying meteorological events there were and landed on the Golden Hurricanes. Thus the legendary name was born.
Naturally, with the evolution of the name came the evolution of the mascot. For many years after the name change, Huffy was the mascot of the Golden Hurricanes, an odd creature which looks a bit like when you pull on the cotton candy at the end of a stick and deform it out of that neat little ball it was in. The student government, for some reason, decided this was not quite enough, and so Captain Cane was born. According to his origin story, he was a normal student who was asked to fix a bad satellite on top of the sports complex in the midst of a thunderstorm so that they could watch the football match live. Apparently, he got both electrocuted (because they did not turn off the satellite wires) and hit by a lightning bolt at the same time. Of course, he grew superpowers and insane athletic ability and got to wear a cape and a mask and carry around a sword because of this. He must have still finished his degree though — the official UTulsa site says he is highly educated.
Which brings us to the modern age. In 2023, Captain Cane retired and the mantle was passed to Gus T, a tornado who likes to wear football jerseys. So, not quite a hurricane, but closer to it than sword-bearing crusader Captain Cane. And, although starting around the same time as Captain Cane, the logo for the athletics department has stayed as a flag like the ones used to warn of an approaching hurricane. I personally find it a very refreshing differentiation from the rest of the collegiate-athletics world.
So maybe the golden hurricane does not exist, although I like to think of it as a hurricane where the sun is just shining really brightly and makes everything glow. But the larger issue is what the next mascot will be, because according to the trend, Gus T will be replaced in about 10 years. Personally, I’m rooting for the resurrection of Captain Cane, although the movement towards more realistic, less chaotic and more weather-based mascots for Tulsa probably means something more closely resembling a hurricane. Or who knows? Maybe Huffy will undergo a rebrand and return.
