Meet the Marketing Graduate Who Kept UMD’s Biggest Secret for Four Years

As an 18-year-old stepping onto the UMD campus for the first time and bringing his on-stage high school theater experience that saw him play roles like Jay Gatsby of The Great Gatsby and Prince Eric of The Little Mermaid, Hanson was inspired to pursue the mascot role after seeing Testudo make the rounds while attending a men’s basketball game. Following the game, he scoured the internet to find the appropriate channels to go through, sent his résumé and auditioned to eventually earn the role.

“I saw Testudo and thought, ‘I could do that,’ and maybe the ego inside me said, ‘I could do that a little bit better,’” says Hanson. “I just have a passion for performing, and I know there’s a joy that it brings me and a joy that I'm able to bring to others.”

Being one of the latest in a long lineage of students to don the suit and represent the institution as its beloved mascot is a role that Hanson understood came with great responsibility. Focused on protecting his alter ego, he frequently rebuffed requests from friends to attend on-campus sporting events and was forced to craft believable excuses for his classroom absences.

“It felt like I was hanging out with my friends and then I go disappear into a phone booth and run out as someone else,” he says.

He went nearly his whole tenure without a hitch, with his closest call to being made out coming roughly a week before his grand reveal, as a friend of his walked by while he was getting the suit out of his car for an on-campus event.

“I said, ‘I’m just carrying this for a friend,” and he somehow bought that. After the reveal, he texted me, ‘So you lied straight to my face,” says Hanson. “I was like, ‘You couldn’t have waited seven more days for that?’”

When he wasn’t wearing the suit, Hanson was also busy applying marketing principles from his integrated marketing courses at the Smith School to broaden the mascot’s reach and impact on social media.

Part of his responsibilities included assisting in managing Testudo’s social media accounts, paying close attention to peak hours on apps to drive engagement, enacting greater search engine optimization and testing content with different audiences.

“All of this is what you would see in a typical marketing plan,” says Hanson. “For my reveal video, I made sure to have it scheduled in advance and shared with people I knew would help send it out. Now we’re seeing that it has over 100,000 views across all platforms, and I have the University of Maryland to thank for that.”

Now taking the first steps in his professional career, Hanson is trading his shell for wings as he takes on the role of Talon, the official mascot of Major League Soccer club D.C. United. Although he’s wearing a new suit, Hanson says he’ll always be proud to have written a chapter in the iconic mascot’s history and to have experienced firsthand what Testudo means to the UMD community.

“No matter who you are or what background you’re from, you can look at Testudo and know there’s a friend in there,” says Hanson. “Remember that next time you see Testudo, rub that nose for good luck and know that he’s with you.”