For nearly 50 years, the spirit of Murray State University’s football team has been embodied by its living mascot: Racer One.
The role of the western Kentucky school’s galloping gray mare and its rider have been passed down many times over the years.
It all started in 1976, when Murray State student jockey Carol Robertson rode a gray full-blooded bay named Violet Cactus around the track at the Roy Stewart Stadium in a game against Southeast Missouri State University. The victory lap was just meant to celebrate the home team scoring a touchdown, but it was the birth of a long-trotting tradition.
Violet Cactus held the mantle of Racer One for ten years before passing away in 1984. The original Racer One is buried near the endzone of the north-end of the Roy Stewart Stadium. Since then, 19 horses have played the role of Racer One with the help of 39 student jockeys.
Dr. Shea Porr is the associate dean for the Hudson School of Agriculture and department chair for animal and equine science at Murray State University. She also oversees the Racer One program.
“I think it makes us somewhat unique,” Porr said. “There are very few schools that have a live mascot as part of their program and, of those schools, even fewer have a horse.”
Many schools that had live mascots in the 1960s and 1970s have swapped them out for students in suits – like MSU’s own Dunker – but there are dozens of schools that still carry on the tradition that originated with Ivy League institutions like Yale and Princeton. That includes mascots of all shapes and sizes like Smokey the bluetick coonhound at the University of Tennessee, Bevo the longhorn at the University of Texas and Ace, the falcon who performs during Air Force football games.
Fun Fact: To avoid overworking the horse, Racer One will only run a lap for the first seven touchdowns scored by the hometeam!
The pressures of performing can be just as tough on live mascots as they are on humans. Because of that, not just any horse can be Racer One. Porr said there's some main criteria that constitute what a Racer One horse should be.
“We want a horse that's going to be good in situations where they're by themselves,” Porr said. “[They’re] around lots of noise and activity and things that are not normal for horses.”
Candidates for Racer One even attend marching band rehearsals to test how they react to loud noises. Porr also added that it is preferable for Racer One to be a gray mare, like the one alluded to in Murray State University's fight song.
Today, the role of Racer One is held by a flea-bitten gray thoroughbred named Vegas. The equine mascot stands at 16 “hands” tall (or 5’9”), weighs just over 1,300 pounds and sports a speckled gray coat. Vegas is also the first Racer One to be born and raised on Murray State’s farms.
His handlers describe Vegas as being “quirky” and a “lazy jumper” that transforms when he dons the traditional Racer blue and gold for a game.
“His personality changes and stuff. He gets the celebrity mentality,” said Emily Brow, a senior agricultural sciences major on the student team that takes care of Racer One. “You can tell as soon as that mask goes on his face he knows ‘I am Racer One’ and it’s showtime.”
A racer needs a jockey in the saddle, and Vegas has Madison Presley, a senior equine business major at Murray State.
The student jockey admitted there was initially some uncertainty on whether or not the partnership could work.
“At first, I wasn't sure, because he could be a little pushy sometimes,” Presley said. “But, I really got to learn his personality, and he's actually very friendly.”
Through her Racer One experience, Presley said she’s been able to follow her passion for raising public knowledge when it comes to equine literacy. She said some of the most joyful moments on the job is helping facilitate moments when people can have personal moments with the iconic horse.
Porr said that’s the goal for the Racer One program: highlighting a unique collegiate tradition and giving people an opportunity to have personal experiences with horses.
“This whole program is not only to get the students involved with the horses, but also to get them to understand what it is to be involved in PR and marketing,” Porr said. “The impact it has on the people who get to come up and see the horse, scratch on the horse and be involved in getting their pictures taken is something that they're going to remember forever.”
Murray State’s home game Saturday against Butler University is the first game where Presley and Vegas are expected to run the track after a touchdown. It’s the start of Vegas’s sixth season as Racer One, but just the first in the saddle for Presley – a third-generation Racer who’s been riding since she was just seven years-old.
“I feel like I'm carrying on that legacy, but then being the jockey as well is even better,” Presley said. “And, Murray is all about traditions and legacy.”
