The Ospreys faced off against the Lions of TCNJ in an anticipated double-header, bringing students and families from both teams to the Big Blue Sports Center to join in the exciting game. It was the perfect opportunity for everyone to come together to celebrate Stockton’s beloved mascot, Talon the Osprey, on his 18th birthday. The celebration occurred during the halftime breaks for both the men’s and women’s basketball games.

A delicious vanilla cake was wheeled out to the court by the Stockton University Cheerleaders and staff involved in the brand new AMP program. After singing Happy Birthday to Talon, the cake was cut for students, faculty, and guests to enjoy. Attendees then took pictures with the Osprey and enjoyed the rest of the halftime break before the game would start up again. Giveaways were also offered to the first 65 students attending each game, with prizes ranging from hats to foam fingers with GO OSPREYS printed on them.

Along with the cake and decorations set up at the court’s entrance hall, there was a wall of history on how Talon the Osprey became the official mascot. A timeline was shown from the decision of what animal would be Stockton’s mascot to the naming of the mascot, which changed from Ozzie the Osprey, a brown osprey with a yellow beak created in 1991, to Talon the Osprey, who debuted as the white and black Osprey in 2007. Many old issues from The Argo were set up to highlight the pieces that talked about Talon’s progress and growth throughout the years.

Talon’s Birthday Party was a collaborative event between Stockton AMP and Stockton FAST, or the initiative focused on increasing school spirit and pride in our athletics. Candace Mitchell, the Director of Student Transition Programs and one of the Stockton AMP coordinators, credited the creation of Talon’s commemorative wall to Stockton’s librarians. “Our librarians were able to pull a lot of Talon’s history, like newspaper articles about announcements of Talon, to give us a little extra information,” Mitchell stated. “[Talon’s] birthday was celebrated a couple years ago, but it isn’t something that’s been an annual tradition, so we’re hoping to create one!”

Stockton’s new AMP program has a lot of events planned throughout the semester, and their calendar of events can be found here. The next Stockton AMP event will be the “Black-out Basketball Game” during the match against Rutgers-Camden on February 12 — here, attendees are encouraged to be dressed in all black.