Shippensburg University embraced the spirit of April Fool’s Day this past weekend and replaced beloved mascot Big Red with Shippo the Hippo for the day. Shippo was revealed on the university’s social media accounts Saturday morning before interacting with students across campus throughout the day.

The prank started early on Saturday, with the university posting a video message from President Charles Patterson on each of its social media accounts. He discussed how the ballots from the 2005 Shippensburg University mascot voting process were discovered during a recent cleanup of Old Main. A recount of the ballots was done and discovered an error in the original tally.

Patterson then mentioned how the university is committed to honoring the student voice, both past and present, and that the error must be corrected. He then stated that Big Red was retired as of March 31, and Shippo the Hippo is now the campus’ new mascot.

Shippo then made its debut alongside Patterson in the video, before spending the day around campus. Shippo was seen in Reisner Dining Hall, the CUB and a few other spots on campus at different parts of the day. Some students took the opportunity to pose (“hippose,” if you will) for a picture with Shippo.

Shippo the Hippo managed to have a decent online presence Saturday as well. The Instagram page for Big Red changed its username to fit Shippo, with a pair of posts featuring Shippo being uploaded on Saturday.

Intriguingly enough, Shippo was not a brand new idea. Shippo was the runner-up of the 2005 mascot election, and the result was said to be very close, with reports mentioning the strong contingent Shippo had behind it. In fact, a brick outside Stewart Hall today still mentions how Shippo deserved to win.

A large majority of students quickly realized the announcement was an April Fool’s joke, but those playing along with the bit had mostly positive reactions. Commenters on the president’s video discussed how they wanted Shippo merchandise to be available and saying how cute they were, but a few others wanted justice for Big Red.

The university posted a second video on its social media Saturday evening, featuring Shippo waving at the camera before Big Red came in and pushed them out of the way. Big Red then essentially put his hands out to the camera and the text “April Fool’s!” appeared. Comments on this one were much more negative, with people wanting Shippo to return immediately.

Overall, the university did quite well with its joke, taking a simple concept quite far. The change even got picked up by a few local news stations, including CBS 21 and ABC 27. It was a fun escapade where those involved will remember it for a while to come.

Do you prefer Big Red or Shippo? Don’t worry… it’s a purely hippo-thetical question.

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