The Santa Clara Men's Cross Country team is a glorious sight to behold. The team's headshots have recently been circulating across social media, and the goofy photos — all featuring some sort of ridiculous mustache — are a huge hit. The East Bay Times explains:
The growing of mustaches for team photo day is a Bronco cross-country tradition that goes back at least a decade, meaning even the longest-tenured runners on the program remember what it was like discovering the array of portraits as a high schooler interested in the program.
Yes, it is a joke, but yes, they very much are the real photos the runners use for their headshots on the Santa Clara website. It's why the mustache talk begins months before team photo day, to give the more follicly challenged teammates time to grow whatever they can on their upper lip. [Team member] Litoff admitted he needed all three months to grow a mustache for his freshman year picture.
"This is one of the lasting [traditions] too, because you get pictures of it forever," Litoff said. "Every year, you go back and look and see the growth you've had since freshman year — both literally," — as in, more hair for the 'stache — "and in how much funnier the pictures can be."
I don't know anything about sports, and I don't really like sports, but this is the kind of sports-related phenomenon I can really get behind. The entire team looks like what would happen if the Viagra Boys' song "Sports" came to life and manifested itself as a team of runners. Keep up the good work, guys!
