US College Mascots

Why settle for a real animal as college mascots when you can have a mythical creature? The university’s choice of the phoenix, known for its ability to be ‘reborn from the ashes’, was inspired by the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and subsequent rebuilding of the city.

The tiger officially supplanted Princeton’s original lion mascot in 1911, when the lion statues that had been a gift from Woodrow Wilson were replaced with a pair of tigers. Nothing personal, Woodrow…

If Princeton doesn’t want lions, Columbia does. This, erm, hugely imaginative name was selected from more than 200 entries in a competition in 2005. Other shortlisted names were Hamilton, Hudson, K.C. and J.J.

Breaking the animal-shaped mold, Penn instead has a person dressed as a Quaker – admittedly better known for pacifism than fighting spirit. Playing the Quaker is apparently a much-coveted role. Candidates must be between 5’10’’and 6’ tall, and have to keep their identity secret until graduation.

Cornell’s bear mascot began with a series of real bear cubs which were brought to the campus between 1915 and 1939. The university’s sports teams were already known as ‘Big Red’ before this – the red has nothing to do with the bear’s color, which in today’s costume is brown.

That’s right, it’s a dancing tree. While not fully accepted by Stanford as its official mascot, the redwood tree does regularly appear at matches – and on lists of the weirdest/worst college mascots, alongside Dartmouth’s ‘Keggy the Keg’ (also unofficial).