College Mascot Trivia
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107 free College Mascot trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 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 107 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 Seilers were given the first Uga as a wedding present in 1956; past Ugas lie in a mausoleum at Sanford Stadium, and fans chant 'Damn good dog' when the collar passes to a successor.
Q 02Before a 2019 bowl game, Texas's steer Bevo broke loose and charged at which rival live mascot?
Georgia's Uga
Georgia's Uga got clear as Bevo XV broke free of his handlers before kickoff, scattering the reporters gathered around the two mascots; 15th-ranked Texas then upset fifth-ranked Georgia 28–21.
Q 03Colorado's Ralphie the Buffalo is always what?
A female bison
A female bison is always chosen for size and temperament: a male can weigh 1,000 pounds more and stand a foot taller, and even she reaches 25 mph on her run around Folsom Field.
Q 04How was LSU's first Mike the Tiger paid for in 1936?
25 cents from every student
25 cents from every student raised the $750 that bought a cub from the Little Rock Zoo; he arrived as Sheik and was renamed for Mike Chambers, the athletic trainer most responsible for bringing him to campus.
Q 05Where does Texas A&M's mascot Reveille rank in the Corps of Cadets?
At the very top, five silver diamonds
At the very top, five silver diamonds: one more than the Corps commander's four, so a cadet whose bed she falls asleep on has to sleep somewhere else, because she outranks him.
Q 06Brutus, Ohio State's mascot since 1965, is an anthropomorphic what?
A buckeye nut
A buckeye nut, from Ohio's state tree, won out after the idea of a live buck deer was rejected as impossible; students Ray Bourhis and Sally Huber built the first one for 1965 homecoming.
Q 07Michigan State's teams were known as what before becoming the Spartans?
The Aggies
The Aggies, of Michigan Agricultural College, were due to become the 'Michigan Staters' after a naming contest, until sportswriter George Alderton found that too clumsy and picked 'Spartans' from the other entries.
Q 08Under a 1947 handshake deal, Oregon's Duck mascot is modelled on which cartoon character?
Donald Duck
Donald Duck was licensed on a handshake between athletic director Leo Harris and Walt Disney; after Disney died the only proof was a photo of him in an Oregon jacket bearing the Duck, so a written contract followed in 1973.
Q 09What was the name of the live white duck that appeared at Oregon games in the 1920s?
Puddles
Puddles lived on the nearby Millrace and was escorted to games by his fraternity-house neighbours; he and his offspring kept coming until the early 1940s, when Humane Society complaints ended the live-duck era.
Q 10Western Kentucky's Big Red is best described as what?
A red, furry blob
A red, furry blob is what student Ralph Carey sketched in 1979 to give WKU a mascot like no other; the school later sued an Italian broadcaster for $250 million, claiming its puppet Gabibbo was a copy.
Q 11What kind of tree is the Stanford Tree?
A sequoia
A sequoia: the Tree stands for El Palo Alto, the tall coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) on the university seal; Stanford has no official mascot, and its team name Cardinal is the colour, not the bird.
Q 12Which nickname did Stanford's teams officially carry from 1930 until 1972?
The Indians
The Indians name went in 1972 after 55 Native American students and staff petitioned President Richard Lyman to discontinue the symbol for good; the student senate voted to drop it, and Lyman agreed.
Q 13Syracuse's fuzzy, round mascot Otto is an anthropomorphic what?
An orange
An orange: Otto is a walking citrus fruit, though Syracuse's teams take the name Orange from the school colour; when a university committee recommended a wolf instead in 1995, students rallied and the chancellor kept Otto.
Q 21Chief Illiniwek, the University of Illinois symbol retired in 2007, wore regalia from which nation rather than the Illini?
Sioux
The Sioux: the last outfit came from Oglala elder Frank Fools Crow, who presented it at a 1982 football game; in January 2007 his tribe's leaders asked for it back and demanded an end to the Chief's dance.
Q 22What pulls Oklahoma's Sooner Schooner across the field after a score?
Two white ponies
Two white ponies, Boomer and Sooner, pull the scaled-down Conestoga wagon; at the 1985 Orange Bowl its victory lap for a field goal already wiped out by a penalty cost 15 more yards, and Oklahoma's longer retry was blocked.
Q 23Tennessee's live mascot Smokey is which breed?
A Bluetick Coonhound
Q 14Wisconsin's teams took their animal name because the state's early lead miners did what?
Lived in tunnels 'like badgers'
Lived in tunnels 'like badgers': lead miners of the 1820s burrowed into hillsides for winter shelter. A live badger mascot later proved too vicious to control and was retired to a Madison zoo.
Q 15UC Santa Cruz students voted in 1986 to make what their official mascot?
The Banana Slug
The Banana Slug won the 1986 student vote, and with it a chancellor who had thought the Sea Lion more dignified; most students had kept rooting for the Slugs after UCSC took the Sea Lions name to join the NCAA.
Q 16Before Florida State home games, Osceola rides the horse Renegade to midfield and plants what in the turf?
A flaming spear
A flaming spear has opened games since 1978, when alumnus Bill Durham launched the ritual after obtaining permission from the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which still approves the regalia Osceola wears.
Q 17UC Irvine students voted in 1965 for which mascot, inspired by the comic strip B.C. and its cry of 'Zot!'?
The Anteater
The Anteater reached the ballot because two water polo players, unimpressed by choices like the roadrunner and the unicorn, lobbied for it; 'Zot!' is the sound the strip's anteater makes as it snaps up its prey.
Q 18Which unofficial mascot have Delta State University's students embraced over the official Statesman?
The Fighting Okra
The Fighting Okra, a scowling pod in boxing gloves, is unofficial: the teams are the Statesmen, named for the state house speaker who helped bring the college to Cleveland, Mississippi.
Q 19The Evergreen State College's Geoduck is what kind of animal?
A clam
A clam: the geoduck, said 'gooey-duck', is the world's largest burrowing clam, so big it cannot fit inside its own shell, and Evergreen's Latin motto, Omnia Extares, means 'Let it all hang out'.
Q 20Arkansas–Monticello's men's teams are named for which crop pest, with the women's teams called the Cotton Blossoms?
Boll Weevils
The Boll Weevils, named for the cotton-eating beetle, won fame from 1939 as the 'Wandering Weevils', a football team that played for fun rather than victories and toured the country putting on a show.
A Bluetick Coonhound has held the job since 1953; Smokey II was dognapped by Kentucky students in 1955, paraded at their pep rally in a blanket marked with a 'K', and returned just before kickoff.
Q 24Auburn's teams are the Tigers, so which bird is named in the school's famous two-word battle cry?
An eagle
An eagle: 'War Eagle' is the battle cry and a greeting, never the team name, as Auburn has been the Tigers since 1892; before home games an eagle soars around Jordan-Hare Stadium as the crowd roars the cry.
Q 25Which Ivy League university's bulldog mascot, Handsome Dan, dates back to 1889?
Yale
Yale's first Handsome Dan was bought by a football player in 1889 and won first prize at the Westminster dog show; he now sits stuffed in a sealed glass case in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium.
Q 26Miami's Hurricanes chose the ibis as mascot because, in folklore, the bird does what?
Last to flee and first to return
Last to flee and first to return: folklore holds that the ibis takes shelter only at the final moment before a hurricane and reappears first once it passes, so other birds are said to look to it for leadership.
Q 27Purdue's official mascot, the Boilermaker Special, is built to look like what?
A locomotive
A locomotive: the Special is a road-going train that students drive down the highway to away games, the brainchild of pharmacy student Israel Selkowitz, who wanted a mascot honouring Purdue's engineering heritage.
Q 28Penn State's Nittany Lion was invented on the spot by a baseball player visiting which rival's campus?
Princeton
Princeton showed off its tiger before a 1904 game, so Penn State third baseman Joe Mason made up an unbeaten Nittany Mountain Lion to top it; in 1907 he pushed the idea in a campus humour magazine.
Q 29Arizona State students voted in 1946 to replace which animal with the Sun Devil?
The Bulldog
The Bulldog gave way to the Sun Devil in a 1946 student vote; two years later Sparky was drawn by a former Disney illustrator, who is rumoured to have given the devil the face of his old boss, Walt Disney.
Q 30Iowa State picked a cardinal costume because what was too hard to depict?
A cyclone
A cyclone was too hard to turn into a costume, so in 1954 Iowa State unveiled a bird drawn from its cardinal-and-gold colours at a homecoming pep rally; a naming contest then christened him Cy.