It is a safe bet that no athletic department would have endorsed many of The Show's most creative heads, including what Mongan considers his pièce de résistance: The three-year campaign mocking former Wyoming coach Steve McClain, known among Mountain West fans as "Rat face." "Sometimes do things we can't back as an administration, but as long as it is not profane we allow it." "That was created by the students," says Kim Mueller, Marquette's assistant athletic director who now oversees the Big Noggin program. They also deftly perpetuate stereotypes: Among the noggins at Marquette's game against rival Wisconsin earlier this season was one of Badgers coach Bo Ryan and an eerily similar-looking Grinch. The most creative students do their research they find embarrassing photos of opposing players on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and make big heads out of them. More and more schools are producing their own heads, and, generally speaking, those are tamer than the heads devised by students. (He also inquired about an internship.) Says Pintens: "I called him back and told him that absolutely we stole their idea, but that we always credit San Diego State for being first." The caller, whose name Pintens could not recall, commented that Marquette had stolen San Diego State's idea. Pintens, who now works at Oregon, says he once received a voicemail at 2 a.m. (Charles Barkley's substantial noggin is an impressive 33-5 Gary Busey's is 8-7.)
Marquette's website also features a gallery of every head ever used (Total: 150) and the Golden Eagles' won-lost record with each head in attendance. A recent lineup consisted of Clint Dempsey, Ray Lewis, Colin Kaepernick and "Bill Clinton Photobomb." (Clinton won.) The winning noggin is unveiled during the first timeout of the second half and presented to the student section to the theme music from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Later, the athletic department created an online poll where fans could vote on one of four potential heads to be revealed at each home game. Marquette eventually found a local company - JobNoggin, a job listings website - to sponsor its heads, and renamed them "Big Noggins." JobNoggin's logo was placed on the back of all the heads. Those heads debuted at Marquette's Big East Conference opener against Connecticut and were a huge hit. He and other staffers created big heads of Mike Tyson (with his face tattoo), Brittany Spears (bald version), Blink 182 drummer Travis Barker (Mohawk included), and a life-sized version of Mini-Me from the Austin Powers movies. "I saw that photo and we talked about what the San Diego State students were doing and we decided to try it," says Craig Pintens, who in 2005 was the assistant athletic director for marketing at Marquette.
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