Mascot Mania

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182 – November/December, 2024

By  Caroline Coile

Are you ready for some football (mascots)? Fall means football, and with it a cavalcade of canine college mascots. Or at least a few. Because it turns out there are more canine mascots than any other species. And that doesn’t even count wild canids like North Carolina State’s Wolfpack, or professional teams such as Cleveland Browns’ Bullmastiff, Swagger, or the teams that combine both such as the NHL Arizona Coyotes and the NBA Minnesota Timberwolves—neither of which sport live coyotes nor wolves on the sidelines. Several other dogs are “unofficial” mascots, such as Barclay the Lab of the St. Louis Blues hockey team, Hank the stray of the Milwaukee Brewers, Smash the rescue of the Nashville Predators, and Captain the Lab of the Washington Capitals.

It’s surprising that the Pitbulls don’t lead the parade of dog mascots, but at the time many of the earlier mascots were being assigned, the (English) Bulldog was probably close enough—and perhaps with a bit more style. Besides, pitbulls weren’t the fad they are today. So, it’s no surprise that Bulldogs have been the favored team mascot over any other dog breed. After all, they’re tenacious and tough, and pretty much built like tackles. In the world of college sports, the Bulldog is the king of canine mascots, representing at least 15 Division 1 (the highest level of intercollegiate sports) teams: Yale, Mississippi State, University of Georgia, Alabama A&M, Bryant, Butler, The Citadel, Drake, Fresno State, Gardner-Webb, Gonzaga, Louisiana Tech, UNC-Asheville, Samford, and South Carolina State. And we won’t even touch on the non-Division 1 teams. Suffice it to say, in the world of sports mascots, Bulldogs both drool and rule. And that’s in part due to Handsome Dan.

Handsome Dan

Click here to read the complete article
182 – November/December, 2024

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=309732

Posted by AnthonyA on Nov 23 2024. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.