From The Birmingham News:
University of Alabama at Birmingham unveiled a new, three-ton, smoke-breathing statue of Blaze, the UAB mascot, today at 1:30 p.m. outside Bartow Arena.
The statue was envisioned by the 16-member Commission on UAB Traditions, which researches and studies traditions that could be adopted by the university community, and it was commissioned by the UAB National Alumni Society.
But, I mean, doesn't it look kind of cartoonish? It is very evocative of Elliot from Pete's Dragon. Don't get me wrong, UAB has come a long way since the early Bartow days, when, if memory serves, the UAB athletic logo was just a sideways chevron-looking shape that was, presumably, supposed to embody motion (said motion came from trail-blazing, which was the original connotation of the term Blazer, I believe).
But back to "Blaze," couldn't he have been made to look a little more serious, maybe a darker green, or actually fire-breathing nostrils - how awesome would that be, walking up to Bartow for a game and seeing flames shoot out at you?! If they were going to go Disney, they could have at least gone with Malecifent from Sleeping Beauty, right?
Or even better, what about Draco from Universal's 1996 film Dragonheart? Every time fans passed by, they would hear Sean Connery's voice saying "I am the laszht one!" or "To the shtarzh, Bowen!"
