KUTZTOWN, Pa. - Avalanche, Kutztown University's golden bear mascot, defended his title and won the 2016 Mascot Madness Championship on Tuesday morning after an extremely-narrow winning margin over Rocky of Slippery Rock University. 
 
Avalanche is headed to the State Capitol tomorrow, Wednesday, April 6, to be recognized as State System Mascot Madness champion. A total of 8,968 votes were cast in the title rematch against Rocky. Once again, the competition came down to the final minutes with Avalanche pulling out the victory.
 
Congratulations to Slippery Rock for another great effort.
 
Monday marked the fourth round of competition in the State System's Mascot Madness. Avalanche faced off and won against Millersville in the First Round, West Chester in the Elite Eight, Bloomsburg in the Final Four and Slippery Rock in the Championship.
 
First Round - Avalanche (Kutztown) def. Skully (Millersville), 69%-31%
Second Round - Avalanche (Kutztown) def. Rammy (West Chester), 51%-49%
Final Four - Avalanche (Kutztown) def. Roongo (Bloomsburg), 53%-47%
Championship - Avalanche (Kutztown) def. Rocky (Slippery Rock), 50%-50% (margin of victory was less than 1%)
 
Born on Blue Mountain in northern Berks County, Avalanche came to KU in October 2005.  He lives in the clock tower of Old Main and is a cheerology and bearobics majors.  He is named in honor of the nickname of then Kutztown State College's sports teams from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s. In 1961, Golden Bears replaced Golden Avalanche as the nickname for Kutztown's sports teams, and Golden Bear mascots soon followed. Most recently, Goldie and Griz served as KU's Golden Bear mascots. With their "graduation," however, a new mascot was sought.
 
Avalanche was created by the Raymond Entertainment Group (REG), a company based out of Newark, DE, specializing in creating mascot characters. The CEO of REG is David Raymond, the original Phillie Phanatic. His company has created mascots for the NCAA, University of Delaware, Lakewood BlueClaws, Cincinnati Reds, fellow Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference member Millersville University and many others.
 
For more information about Avalanche, visit his website at www.kutztown.edu/Avalanche.