Issue date: 2/15/10 Section: Sports

When RMU's mascot, Romo, was first introduced back in 2006, he was a limp costume without a name and without a puppeteer. But he did have a purpose: to rally up the students of Robert Morris University and instill pride amongst the entire body of the school. If only there was a volunteer to work every home sporting game, local events, and pose for pictures to place randomly all over the beautiful campus.

Michael Murphy had been waiting for the opportunity to become more involved on his campus, but he just didn't know where to start. Then one fateful day, he responded to a mass e-mail that went out to all the students at RMU about a new mascot and any volunteers willing to become the nameless entity.

"I went to Slippery Rock University my freshman year," Murphy said. "It was my first university and I wasn't very involved on campus life. Then I went to CCAC (Community College of Allegheny County) for awhile before transferring to RMU. I wanted to be more involved on campus and get to know more people,"

Only three people had responded to the mass e-mail. Of those three, only two were hired. And of those two, only one went on to continue to be the Romo we all know and love today. But when the school didn't have any previous mascot experience to fall back on, Murphy took all the knowledge he acquired from a previous job, dressing up as the main mouse at Chuck E. Cheese, and applied it to his new role at RMU.

"With them never having a mascot before, they really weren't sure what they were looking for. Between the three of us, the two they hired had mascot experience," he explained. "I worked as Chuck E. Cheese through high school and the other girl was a pierogie for the Pittsburgh Pirates. So they figured, "Ok, if the two of us have mascot experience, we could show them what to do."

When Murphy responded to the e-mail, he never dreamed he'd be the face of the university. In every picture of every Robert Morris affiliated magazine, Murphy is layered in his professionally-built suit. He walks around the university and sees his face, or rather Romo's, plastered all over the university.

"It's weird because I'm the face of the university, but I'm not. It's me in all those pictures and all those signs, but it's not. When I first became Romo, he didn't even have a name. It's really bizarre. If it wasn't for me in the costume, he wouldn't be anybody. But he's part of the university because I'm crazy in the costume. It's cool," Murphy laughed.

Continued...

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