The official UT mascot of all teams is Smokey, a Tennessee bluetick hound dog, selected in 1953. From 1945 to 1947, Dipper, a cocker spaniel belonging to wingback W. S. “Monk” Fowler, joined the football VOLS on the bench and performed mascot duties, decked out in orange and white. He had a wonderful trick of … Continued

The mascot of the University of Alabama is the elephant. In 1930 Atlanta Journal sportswriter Everett Strupper reported a fan’s saying “hold your horses, the elephants are coming,” referring to the size of the football team. Strupper and other writers referred to the team as the “red elephants.” The 1930 team went 10-0 and was … Continued

The mascot of the University of Arkansas is the razorback hog. During the early years of athletics at Arkansas, the cardinal was the favored mascot, but in 1909 Football Coach Hugo Bezdek referred to the team as “a wild band of razorback hogs” following a 16-0 victory over Louisiana State University. In 1910 the student … Continued

Auburn has two mascots: the tiger (Aubie) and the golden (war) eagle. The tiger comes from the line in Oliver Goldsmith’s poem, “The Deserted Village,” “where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey.” Aubie was a cartoon character drawn by Birmingham Post-Herald artist Phil Neel in 1959 for a football game program. The war eagle comes … Continued

The LSU mascot, Mike the Tiger, is a royal Bengal tiger. The mascot comes from the school nickname, which is drawn from the legendary Confederate battalion—Robert E. Lee’s Louisiana Tigers. This legendary group was so fierce during battle that even fellow Confederate troops were loath to fight alongside it. In fall 1896 Coach A. W. … Continued

The official mascot of Mississippi State is an American Kennel Club registered English Bulldog, named Bully. The use of a bulldog as the official game mascot began in 1935 when Coach Major Ralph Sasse traveled to Memphis to acquire a bulldog at the request of the team. He returned with Ptolemy, a gift of the … Continued

Reveille, a female collie addressed by Corps of Cadets students as “Miss Rev, ma’am” is the mascot of Texas A&M. Reveille I arrived at the school in January 1931. A group of cadets hit a small black and white dog on their way back from Navasota and brought the dog to campus to care for … Continued

The mascots of the University of Florida are Albert and Alberta, costumed alligators. Albert appeared in 1986; Alberta was added in 1991. The mascots were taken from the nickname, which came about in 1908. In 1907 Austin Miller, a University of Virginia law student, was visited by his father, Phillip, who was the owner of … Continued

The mascot of the University of Georgia is an English Bulldog named Uga. The dogs are from a long line owned by the Frank W. “Sonny” Seiler family of Savannah. Uga I was born in 1955. The nickname from which the mascot derives comes from a 1920 article by Atlanta Journal sports writer Morgan Blake … Continued

In 1909 the University of Kentucky football team beat the University of Illinois 6-2. The head of the military department, Commandant Carbusier, told a group of students in a chapel service following the game that the team had “fought like wildcats.”