Lesly Mathurin, the first full-time student to perform as Razor the Shark, is now an athletic trainer at a private high school in Dallas and is pursuing a doctorate degree in physical therapy.
As Razor, Mathurin remembers dancing at athletics games, diving on the court when Razor’s theme song played and throwing the first pitch at a Miami Marlins game.
“I thought it was a pretty good experience. It was a great feeling knowing I had some type of impact on people at the game,” Mathurin said.
NSU Athletics celebrated its 40th anniversary in the 2022-23 academic year. When Athletics started in 1982, NSU’s mascot was the Knights. NSU changed from the Knights when Athletics applied to NCAA Division II.
“Lynn University was the Knights, so that helped with changing,” said Robert “Bubba” Baroniel, manager of Revenue Generation, Marketing, and Promotions.
Work on Razor the Shark first began in 2003. After a survey concluded that more than 40% of students didn’t know what NSU’s mascot was, Brad Williams, senior vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, brought together students, athletes and faculty, including Mike Mominey, athletics director, to develop new ideas for the mascot.
Through The Knight newspaper (now The Current), students voted on what NSU’s new mascot should be after the Knights.
“Eighty-two percent of all the students voted for the Sharks, and 18% voted for the Stinger Reefs,” Williams said. “The best part about this is, over 4,000 students voted. Can you imagine that? In my whole history here, I’ve never seen any group get into it like that.”
The new Shark mascot made its debut at Homecoming 2005. Weeks later athletics decided on the name “Razor.”
“The announcement of the new mascot was made at Homecoming. They immediately transitioned from Knights to Sharks,” said Matt Parry, former NSU athlete who played in the first soccer game as the Sharks. “I think the rebrand has been nothing but a positive thing.”
Razor would remain unchanged until 2019, when Public Relations created Razor 2.0.
“We ended up creating the infamous superhero version of Razor,” said Kyle Fisher, vice president of Public Relations, Marketing and Creative Services. “It was a little more sort of Marvel universe inspired, a little bit more hero-type character as opposed to kind of more of a plush, animal figure.”
Razor 2.0 had polarizing reactions from students and families, so Public Relations worked with the student committee and the mascot manufacturer to design a third version of Razor.
“We all worked together, came up with some new designs for a more friendly, accessible version of Razor,” Fisher said. “I think the Razor we have today is the best of all. And it was done in the best process of all.”
Razor 3.0 debuted in 2020 and stayed the same ever since. Students can find Razor at events like CommunityFest, the STUEYs and select Athletics Department games.
“Athletics is hoping for Razor to have a stronger presence at the games,” Baroniel said.
If students are interested in performing as Razor the Shark, they can apply for the position on JobX.
“The position name is ‘College Mascot.’ It is a student employment position,” said Christina Rajkumar, assistant director of Special Events & Projects.
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