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59 free College Mascot trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
51 free college mascot trivia questions with answers. College sports has a bulldog buried in a mausoleum, a tiger paid for in quarters, a duck licensed by Walt Disney on a handshake and a clam. This college mascot trivia quiz rounds them all up: the live animals (Uga, Bevo, Ralphie, Mike, Reveille, Smokey, Tusk, Bill the Goat, Handsome Dan), the costumes (Brutus, Sparty, Bucky, Otto, Big Red, Herbie, Buzz, Sebastian, Goldy) and the gloriously weird (the Stanford Tree, Banana Slugs, Fighting Okra, Geoducks, Boll Weevils, Keggy the Keg, Scrotie). You will also find the origin stories and the fights: why Wisconsin is the Badgers, how Iowa State ended up with a cardinal, what 'War Eagle' actually is, why Chief Illiniwek was retired, and which student got Penn State's lion by mouthing off at Princeton. Roughly a third of the questions are for casual fans, a third for people who watch every Saturday, and the rest for those who know Bevo's original name. Every answer is checked against a cited source shown under the question.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Uga, the live mascot of the University of Georgia, has always been owned by which Savannah family?
The Seilers
The first Uga was a wedding present in 1956; deceased Ugas are entombed in a mausoleum at Sanford Stadium as fans chant 'Damn good dog'.
Q 02Bevo, the Texas Longhorn steer, gave the University of Texas what?
Its burnt-orange colours
The profile of the horns also produced the 'Hook 'em Horns' hand sign; alumni chipped in $124 to buy the first steer in 1916.
Q 03Colorado's Ralphie the Buffalo is always what?
A female bison
Females are smaller and calmer for the horseshoe run around Folsom Field; the current Ralphie, Brandy, is the seventh since 1967.
Q 04How did LSU students pay for the first Mike the Tiger in 1936?
25 cents from every student
The $750 bought a cub from the Little Rock Zoo, originally named Sheik and renamed for trainer Mike Chambers.
Q 05Where does Reveille, Texas A&M's mascot, sit in the Corps of Cadets hierarchy?
At the very top, five silver diamonds
The Rough Collies are buried outside Kyle Field facing the scoreboard so they can still see the game.
Q 06Brutus, Ohio State's mascot since 1965, is an anthropomorphic what?
A buckeye nut
Students Ray Bourhis and Sally Huber lobbied for a mascot and the state tree's nut won.
Q 07Michigan State's teams were known as what before becoming the Spartans in 1925?
The Aggies
A naming contest picked 'Michigan Staters'; a sportswriter dug 'Spartans' out of the rejects and quietly started using it in 1926.
Q 08The Oregon Duck is based on Donald Duck under an agreement with whom?
Walt Disney
Athletic director Leo Harris sealed it with a handshake in 1947; when Disney lawyers balked in the 1970s, Oregon produced a photo of Harris and Walt in matching Oregon Donald jackets.
Q 09What was the name of the live white duck that appeared at Oregon games in the 1920s?
Puddles
Cartoons of Puddles started looking like Donald by 1940, which is how Disney got involved.
Q 10Western Kentucky's Big Red is best described as what?
A red, furry blob
Student Ralph Carey designed it in 1979; the Hilltoppers name comes from a campus 232 feet above the Barren River.
Q 11What kind of tree is the Stanford Tree?
A sequoia
It belongs to the band, not the university, which has no official mascot; the team name Cardinal is a colour, not a bird.
Q 12Stanford's teams were called what from 1930 until 1972?
The Indians
Native American students and staff persuaded the president to drop the name and the Prince Lightfoot mascot in 1972.
Q 13Syracuse's mascot Otto is an anthropomorphic what?
The colour orange
He replaced the Saltine Warrior, a 'Native American' invented in a 1928 student-magazine hoax about an unearthed chief.
Q 21Chief Illiniwek gave his last official performance for the University of Illinois in which year?
2007
The NCAA had listed him among 19 'hostile or abusive' mascots in 2005; the regalia was Sioux, not Illiniwek.
Q 22What pulls Oklahoma's Sooner Schooner across the field after a score?
Two white ponies
Boomer and Sooner haul a scaled-down Conestoga wagon driven by the all-male RUF/NEKS spirit group.
Q 23Tennessee's live mascot Smokey is which breed?
A Bluetick Coonhound
The Pep Club held a contest in 1953 to find a hound; the winner howled at the crowd and won the job.
Q 14Wisconsin's teams took their animal name because the state's early lead miners did what?
Lived in tunnels 'like badgers'
A live badger proved too vicious and was replaced by a raccoon named Regdab, badger spelled backwards, before Bucky's costume debuted in 1949.
Q 15UC Santa Cruz students voted in 1986 to make what their official mascot?
The Banana Slug
The chancellor refused to honour the referendum, saying only athletes could pick; People magazine gave the slug a full page.
Q 16What was UC Santa Cruz's mascot before the slug won out?
The Sea Lions
The athletic director imposed it on the basketball club in 1972.
Q 17UC Irvine's original anteater design was based on what, despite the popular story?
The Playboy bunny
Students chose the anteater in a 1965 campus election; Peter the Anteater's battle cry is 'Zot!'
Q 18Delta State University's unofficial mascot, embraced by students since the late 1980s, is what?
The Fighting Okra
It wears boxing gloves; the official mascot is the rather tamer Statesman.
Q 19The Evergreen State College's Geoduck is what kind of animal?
A clam
The huge burrowing clam is native to Washington's Puget Sound; it is pronounced 'gooey-duck'.
Q 20Which school's teams are the Boll Weevils, with women's teams called the Cotton Blossoms?
Arkansas–Monticello
They play in NCAA Division II's Great American Conference.
Q 24Auburn's teams are the Tigers, so what exactly is the school's famous two-word yell?
A battle cry and a live golden bird
The university's line: 'We are the Tigers who say War Eagle.' A live golden eagle has been kept continuously since 1960.
Q 25Yale's Handsome Dan holds what distinction?
Oldest live mascot tradition, since 1889
The first Handsome Dan won at Westminster and now sits stuffed in a glass case in the Payne Whitney gym.
Q 26Miami chose the ibis as its mascot in 1926 because, in folklore, the bird does what?
Last to flee and first to return
Sebastian the Ibis wears jersey number 0; the name came from the student yearbook, The Ibis.
Q 27What is Purdue's official mascot?
The Boilermaker Special train
The truck-mounted Victorian locomotive is official; the hammer-wielding athletic mascot began as a bookstore logo in 1940.
Q 28Penn State's Nittany Lion was invented on the spot in 1907 by a student at which rival's campus?
Princeton
H. D. Mason declared his lion would beat Princeton's tiger; the one-armed push-ups after touchdowns honour the lion's 'strong right arm'.
Q 29Arizona State students voted in 1946 to replace which animal with the Sun Devil?
The Bulldog
Disney illustrator Berk Anthony drew Sparky two years later, and is rumoured to have given him Walt Disney's face.
Q 30Iowa State picked a cardinal costume because what was too hard to depict?
A cyclone
The Cyclones name dates to tornadoes that hit the area in 1898; Cy comes from the cardinal-and-gold colours.