Rooney

Since Rooney's unveiling in the spring of 2009 as Roanoke's mascot, students have enjoyed this entertaining addition to campus life. At last, Roanoke has a mascot to enhance school spirit at all sorts of sporting events and activities. The search for a mascot was lengthy and, once chosen, its identity was shrouded in secret until the revealing of the big maroon-tailed hawk during Alumni Weekend.

Another of Rooney's secrets remains: who wears the feathers? The identities of student mascot personalities are kept under wraps - that is, until they graduate. A new Maroon tradition was born at the 2010 Commencement when Andrew Cullen '10, the College's first ever mascot personality, showed up for the ceremony with enormous Rooney feet sticking out from beneath his black commencement robe, revealing his identity as the mascot.