Was it a Terrapin?

"Terrapin? I don't know what kind of pan they used!"
the missus

More information than you ever wanted on the whole Beloit turtle/buccaneer mascot question of yesterday. But I actually found it kind of interesting and funny. I need a hobby or something...

The Story Behind the Beloit College Turtle Mascot
Scattered about the Beloit College campus are twenty-three conical, linear, and animal effigy mounds built between A.D. 700 and 1200. One, in the form of a turtle, has inspired the symbol (and unofficial mascot) of the College.

And Still More Beloit Turtles

Single A affiliate for the Milwaukee Brewers: The Beloit Snappers

The Story(s) Behind The Beloit College Buccaneers Mascot
"The mascot of Beloit has been no more stable than its colors. For a time, the school was known simply as "The Gold." At some point, the College's sports teams became known as the Blue Devils although, confusingly, the school color remained gold only. Then in 1949, an undergraduate announcer of the basketball games on the College radio station, who later ascended to the presidency of the ABC Television Network, became bedeviled by the non-alliterativeness of the word "Devils." Virtually singlehandedly, he convinced the faculty and the student body to cast out the "Devils" and replace them with the Buccaneers, ominous newcomers to the bounding main of the Midwest."
Beloit archives

And then this...

"One of the greatest moments in Beloit Mascot history occurred about 10 years ago. Well round about the early to mid nineties everybody got all picky about copyright and trademark infringement. All of a sudden if you put Bucky Badger on a sweatshirt, you were going to get dunned mercilessly unless you paid through the nose for a license.  And the NFL was the pickiest of all. Back then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were a pathetic football team. The doormat of the National Football League. So, lo and behold, some wise guy in the Tampa Bay Buccaneer organization sees that the Beloit Buccaneer mascot emblem, the dude with the feather in his hat, is the mirror image of the Tampa Bay Buccaneer, just reversed. So they send a nasty letter to Beloit College threatening all sorts of terrible things and cease and desist etc. Well, Beloit checks it out and sure enough, they're right, they are identical reverse images. And I wish that I knew which Beloit official this was, but it hits the newspapers because, (and this is where I can shed a little light on your question) Beloit, it turns out, properly purchased the image in the early 70's BEFORE THE TAMPA TEAM CAME INTO EXISTENCE. So the guy from Beloit smugly offers to have the college team play lowly Tampa Bay for the rights!  Tampa Bay slunk off and changed their logo instead. So we know that the logo was with us from the early 70's.  Also in the late 60's early 70's the hippies among the students voted to change the mascot to the Turtle as a joke kind of thing to make it ridiculous, you know. The college elders didn't like that so they permitted the turtle to be the cheerleader type mascot, but retained the more manly Buccaneers moniker for the teams. And now you know the rest of the story."
via some dude who went to Beloit with the missus