What started out as a birthday joke has morphed into a movement.
The creative minds behind the Alma Otter say they had no idea when they threw together a photoshopped otter for a Facebook post that it would go viral.
It has prompted enthusiasm (mostly from students) and scorn (mostly from alumni and Chief backers), and it's also the subject of a nonbinding referendum this week asking UI students if they would like to see Alma Otter be the official Illini mascot.
"We never had any intention of it actually becoming a thing. We just posted a joke picture," said UI junior John Falwick, a physics major who came up with the original idea along with friends Austin Lindell and Connor Latham, both juniors in aerospace engineering.