SuperFrog will soon be sporting a more menacing face around campus because of a bill passed by the House of Student Representatives to help buy TCU Cheer a new mascot suit.
Cheerleading coach Jeff Tucker said the new suit is necessary because the two suits are 2 years old. He said the suits typically only last three years because of wear and tear. He said the new suit will be used exclusively for campus engagements, making the other two available for off-campus events to try to prolong their usefulness.
Tucker said he came to the House Finance Committee because the $28,400 cheerleading budget doesn’t allow enough funding for the new suit after paying for salaries, equipment, competition fees and scholarships.
“I went to the sports marketing and athletic departments first and was respectfully told no,” Tucker said.
Tim George, the director of sports marketing, said the suits usually come out of the cheerleading budget and sports marketing didn’t have the funds to help them purchase the suit. There are currently discussions in the athletic department about how to provide more financial support for TCU Cheer, he said.
Tucker said he was willing to pay for half of the suit with his own cheerleading salary if he absolutely had to, but requested the entire $6,300 cost of the suit from the committee.
The committee decided to give $3,000 for the suit because the full amount, $6,300, is $300 more than it has budgeted in the special projects fund for the entire semester, Treasurer David Watson said. The committee usually funds three or four special projects a semester, he said.
That proposal was amended during Tuesday’s House meeting to pay for the entire suit using “special projects” money that was not spent last semester. The bill was officially passed Thursday when available funding was confirmed by Watson, who said they still have $5,700 for “special projects” this semester.
“In the future, the athletic department should fund this,” Watson said at Tuesday’s House meeting. “If suits have to be replaced every few years, it needs to be in their budget.”
The consensus of the committee was that the donation would be visible to the student body and allows the other suits to go to more public functions and increase TCU’s visibility in the community.
Previous suits have been funded with help from an outside donor and the House, which donated $4,000 for two suits in 1999 and $1,000 for a suit in 1980, Watson said. Tucker said he didn’t want to go to the donor, who he asked to remain anonymous, again because “you can only dip into that well so many times.”
Tucker and his wife also purchased a suit and donated it to be used exclusively for Monday at TCU.
Tucker offered space on the new suit for a Student Government Association logo if it desired one, along with primary use of the costume for SGA events. House Adviser Larry Markley said Programming Council has tried to book SuperFrog several times in the last few years and couldn’t get him.
Tucker said SuperFrog attended 456 events last year and was requested for 1,500. He said “the phone has been ringing off the hook” since the mascot appeared in Nokia commercials during the bowl season. It costs $45 an hour to book SuperFrog. The money goes to the student inhabitant, according to the TCU Cheer Web site.
Tucker said the new suit, which was ordered six months ago, is almost finished, and will feature “a more menacing face that will add depth to the character.”
He said the suit was ordered before they had the funds because they “needed it badly,” and they were planning on doing a fundraiser to pay for the suit before they decided to talk to SGA.
