Live Animal Mascots With Long Histories in U.S. College Sports

Colorado had a live bison on the sideline in 1966. In 1967, Ralphie began leading the football team onto the field. The bison’s student handlers have jobs away from the stadium too. The university describes daily care at a ranch with grazing pastures, a bison companion, and veterinary visits.

Mike I arrived at LSU in 1936. The athletic department originally looked after the tiger, and LSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine took over that responsibility in 1976. The tradition includes a permanent campus habitat, and the tiger pictured is Mike VII.

The Seiler family’s white English bulldog began Georgia’s Uga line in 1956. Each successor gets his own name and a tailored jersey. At Sanford Stadium, Georgia installed an air-conditioned doghouse to give Uga a place to retreat in the heat. The pictured dog is Uga XI, known as Boom.

Auburn’s football teams are the Tigers, but the eagle flight became its own game-day tradition. Tiger, a golden eagle, made the first modern stadium flight in 2000, from an end zone toward midfield. Staff at Auburn’s Raptor Center care for and train the birds. The pictured eagle is Aurea.

A live Texas Longhorn steer appeared at the Thanksgiving Day football game against Texas A&M in 1916. Over the generations, the steer became a regular presence at big games. The Silver Spurs student organization took on Bevo’s care and transportation. The photograph shows Bevo XV.

Texas A&M traces Reveille to a dog taken in by cadets in 1931. A collie later became the familiar face of the tradition. Beginning in 1960, care was assigned to a mascot corporal in the Corps of Cadets. The dog lived with that student, so Reveille’s daily routine could include going to class.

In 1953, Tennessee held a halftime contest for a hound mascot. Brooks’ Blue Smokey barked and won over the crowd. The name has passed to later bluetick coonhounds. For Smokey XII, pictured here, the veterinary school documented reward-based preparation and monitored how he handled crowds.

In 1924, a UNC cheerleader proposed a live ram as a mascot, drawing on a football player nicknamed the Battering Ram. The Hogan family cared for the rams for generations. Carolina’s historical account describes a game-day ritual of brushing the ram and painting his horns Carolina blue.

Navy’s live goat tradition was established by the 1899 Army–Navy game, when Army brought a mule as its counterpart. Later goats inherited the name Bill and appeared at football games and academy events. The academy formalized the live mascot’s care and appearances through a group called Team Bill.

An ice-wagon mule stood in as Army’s mascot for the 1899 game against Navy. Later West Point put cadets, along with staff, in charge of the animals. When Ranger III and Stryker made their debut in 2011, the Army reported that a veterinarian who had previously owned them helped prepare the pair for public appearances.

USC recruited the original Traveler and rider Richard Saukko after seeing them in the 1961 Rose Parade. The horse made his football debut that fall. Later horses inherited the name. USC made the care role explicit in 2003 when it named an equestrian manager to provide, train, and house the next horse.

Two live ponies pulled a small covered wagon at an Oklahoma football game in 1964, starting the Sooner Schooner tradition. Later pairs also carried the names Boomer and Sooner. The school reported that its fourth team lived and trained on the same ranch where the two ponies would spend retirement.

Renegade is the horse in Florida State’s Osceola and Renegade tradition, which debuted in 1978. Alumnus Bill Durham developed it in consultation with Seminole Tribe of Florida chairman Howard Tommie, who arranged for tribal members to design the rider’s clothing. The Durham family directed the program for subsequent horses and riders.

Yale’s archive shows the original Handsome Dan in 1889. The bulldog line lapsed after his death, then students pooled coins for a successor in 1933. In a later generation Yale chose an Olde English Bulldogge for Dan XVIII after caretakers raised health concerns about earlier dogs. The photograph shows the first Dan.