Phil the Pill in a mascot mashup for Clyde the Cougar

It was the hottest ticket since Willy Wonka’s golden ones. An A-lister birthday party for Clyde the Cougar, College of Charleston’s mascot, who was celebrating with a mascot dance party during the women’s basketball game on Sunday, January 14 at TD Arena.

During the actual dance off, which included Coastal Carolina’s Chauncey the Chanticleer, Charlie Riverdog of the Charleston Riverdogs, Phil the Pill, and guest of honor Clyde the Cougar, Phil the Pill wowed the crowd with a sprinkler move and some fancy hand jive.

They would have been even more stunned to know that the body inside the bottle was no college student, but instead a faculty department chair.

Yuri Peterson, interim co-chair of the Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences at MUSC College of Pharmacy, is an enthusiastic College of Charleston fan, so the opportunity to celebrate both CofC and the College of Pharmacy was an irresistible lure.

Between working the crowd during the first half of the game, posing for pictures during the serving of cake to the Cougar Kids Club, and the midcourt dance party, it was a full and fulfilling day as Phil the Pill.

“It was fun!” Peterson said. “The kids really enjoyed the mascots and it was a pleasure interacting with them. And I was really glad they didn’t ask us to go out for the second half. You can only wear that bottle for so long.”

The Cougars fell to Monmouth 75-62 during the basketball action but it is perhaps notable that the Cougars rallied furiously from a 23-point deficit and actually outscored the Hawks 26-19 to end the game.

Must have been those mascots...