Mascot Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
This mascot trivia quiz has 116 free questions with answers and covers the fuzzy, feathered and cartoon characters that sell cereal, cheer on teams and warn about forest fires. It takes in sports mascots (the Phillie Phanatic, San Diego Chicken, Mr. Met, Gritty), advertising icons (Tony the Tiger, the Michelin Man, Smokey Bear, Ronald McDonald), live college mascots (Uga, Bevo, Handsome Dan) and Olympic and World Cup mascots. A dedicated NFL mascot trivia section runs through the league's costumed characters: K.C. Wolf and the horse he replaced, the Ravens' three raven brothers, Staley Da Bear, Sir Purr's live-ball blunder, Steely McBeam's bourbon-flavoured name, Major Tuddy, Rowdy, T-Rac, Captain Fear, Rampage, Thunder, Gumbo, Billy Buffalo, Swoop's Ace Ventura cameo and the Pat Patriot logo. Questions range from easy (which cereal Tony the Tiger sells) to expert (which mascot was in the Mascot Hall of Fame's first class), and every answer is backed by a cited sentence from Wikipedia or an official team page.
30 of 116 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'mascot' comes from a French word meaning what?
Lucky charm
Lucky charm is what French 'mascotte' meant; the word perhaps traces to Provençal 'masco', a witch, so a mascot was a piece of sorcery before it was a team's good-luck figure.
Q 02According to his official backstory, the Phillie Phanatic hails from which island group?
The Galapagos
The Galapagos Islands are his official birthplace; the furry green creature debuted in 1978, built by a design firm led by a veteran of The Muppet Show's puppet workshop.
Q 03The San Diego Chicken, played by Ted Giannoulas, originated in 1974 as a promotion for what?
A radio station
A radio station, KGB-FM, hired the 20-year-old Giannoulas in 1974 to hand out Easter eggs at the San Diego Zoo in the chicken suit; he soon took the act to ballgames.
Q 04When Shea Stadium opened in 1964, Mr. Met began appearing at games as what?
A costumed human
A costumed human Mr. Met greeted fans when Shea Stadium opened in 1964; the Mets dropped him in the 1970s, then brought him back in 1994 for a Nickelodeon promotion.
Q 05Gritty, the wild orange creature introduced in 2018, is the mascot of which team?
The Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers unveiled Gritty in September 2018; in his official story, construction at the team's arena disturbed his secret hideout and drove him into the open.
Q 06Which cereal does Tony the Tiger promote?
Frosted Flakes
Frosted Flakes launched with several animal mascots, among them Katy the Kangaroo; within a year the others were dropped and Tony had the box to himself.
Q 07Who provided Tony the Tiger's deep 'They're gr-r-reat!' voice for five decades?
Thurl Ravenscroft
Thurl Ravenscroft voiced Tony until his death in 2005 and also sang 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch'; he went uncredited on the 1966 special, so the song was often put down to Boris Karloff.
Q 08The Michelin Man, made of stacked tires, has what proper name?
Bibendum
Bibendum comes from 'Nunc est bibendum', Latin for 'now is the time to drink': on an 1898 poster the tire man toasts with a cup of nails and broken glass, because Michelin tires 'drink up' obstacles.
Q 09Why is the Michelin Man white?
Early tires were pale, not black
Early tires were pale, not black: natural rubber is whitish, and makers only began adding carbon black around 1912, years after the Michelin Man first appeared on an 1898 poster.
Q 10Which federal agency has run the Smokey Bear campaign with the Ad Council since 1944?
US Forest Service
The US Forest Service first borrowed Disney's Bambi for a 1944 fire-safety poster; the loan lasted only a year, so the agency and the Ad Council introduced a bear of their own.
Q 11A real bear cub became the living Smokey Bear in 1950 after surviving a wildfire in which southwestern state?
New Mexico
New Mexico's Capitan Gap fire of 1950 burned the cub's paws as he clung to a charred tree; nursed back to health, he was sent to the National Zoo in Washington, where he lived until 1976.
Q 12Ronald McDonald lives in a fictional world called what?
McDonaldland
McDonaldland, created for 1971 commercials, was home to Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar and Grimace; Sid and Marty Krofft sued successfully, claiming it copied their H.R. Pufnstuf.
Q 13Chester, the sunglasses-wearing big cat mascot introduced in 1986, fronts which snack brand?
Cheetos
Q 21Bevo, a live steer, is the mascot of which university?
Texas
Texas got its first Bevo in 1916, when alumnus Stephen Pinckney collected money from fellow graduates to buy a steer in the Panhandle and send it to Austin.
Q 22Handsome Dan, one of the first live college mascots, is a bulldog representing which university?
Yale
Yale student Andrew Graves bought the first Handsome Dan from a New Haven blacksmith in 1889, and the bulldog was soon following him to sporting events as a mascot.
Q 23Traveler, a white horse ridden at football games in Los Angeles, is the mascot of which university?
USC
USC introduced Traveler at its 1961 home opener, dressing rider Richard Saukko in the outfit Charlton Heston had worn in Ben-Hur; it proved too heavy, so Saukko made his own leather version.
Cheetos swapped a mouse for a cat: its first mascot, the suit-wearing Cheetos Mouse of the 1970s, was phased out years before Chester Cheetah arrived in 1986.
Q 14The Energizer Bunny was created as a parody of which rival battery mascot?
The Duracell rabbit
The Duracell rabbit had drummed in battery ads since 1973; Energizer's pink bunny began as a spoof of those commercials, and a 1992 deal between the firms gave Energizer the bunny in the United States and sent Duracell's abroad.
Q 15The Kool-Aid Man is famous for entering a scene by doing what?
Smashing through walls
Smashing through walls became his entrance in 1970s TV ads, capped with 'Oh, yeah!'; he began in 1954 as the Pitcher Man, drawn by an ad artist who had watched his son trace smiley faces on a frosty window.
Q 16The Pillsbury Doughboy, whose real name is Poppin' Fresh, reacts how when his belly is poked?
He giggles happily
He giggles happily, in a voice first supplied by Paul Frees; Rudy Perz of the Leo Burnett ad agency dreamed him up at his own kitchen table in 1965.
Q 17The Jolly Green Giant sells what kind of products?
Canned & frozen vegetables
Canned & frozen vegetables carry the giant because of a pea: the company could not trademark 'Green Giant' as the name of its unusually large variety, so its lawyer suggested inventing a giant for the label.
Q 18Morris the Cat, 'the world's most finicky cat', advertises which brand of cat food?
9Lives
9Lives found its star in 1968, when animal handler Bob Martwick adopted an orange tabby from an Illinois shelter; the cat became the 'finicky' Morris, and lookalikes have played him since.
Q 19Geoffrey the Giraffe was the mascot of which toy store chain?
Toys R Us
Toys R Us put Geoffrey himself up for sale when it shut its US stores in 2018: the giraffe was listed among the brand assets to be auctioned to pay the chain's creditors.
Q 20Uga, a white English bulldog, is the live mascot of which university?
Georgia
Georgia's Uga dynasty began in 1956 with a bulldog given to law student Sonny Seiler as a wedding present; his family has owned every Uga since, and past Ugas lie in marble vaults at Sanford Stadium.
Q 24Brutus Buckeye, the mascot of Ohio State, is an anthropomorphic what?
Nut
Nut it is: a buckeye is the glossy brown seed of Ohio's state tree. Students created Brutus in the 1960s after the other idea, a live buck deer, was rejected as impossible to bring into the stadium.
Q 25The first official Olympic mascot, a rainbow-coloured dachshund named Waldi, appeared at which Games?
Munich 1972
Munich 1972 introduced Waldi, a dachshund modelled on a real dog by Otl Aicher's design team; the marathon course was even laid out to trace the mascot's outline through the city.
Q 26The World Cup mascot tradition began with 'World Cup Willie' at which tournament?
England 1966
England 1966 introduced World Cup Willie, the first World Cup mascot: a lion in a Union Jack shirt that illustrator Reg Hoye modelled on his 12-year-old son, Leo.
Q 27Why was KFC's Harland Sanders called 'Colonel'?
A state honour
A state honour: Kentucky's governor made Sanders an honorary Kentucky Colonel in the 1930s, when he was still feeding travellers beside his roadside gas pumps.
Q 28Bonnie Erickson, who designed the Phillie Phanatic, had earlier created which Muppet for Jim Henson?
Miss Piggy
Miss Piggy was Erickson's creation for The Muppet Show, along with the balcony hecklers Statler and Waldorf; she then set up the design firm that built the Phanatic and Montreal's Youppi!.
Q 29Which future TV weatherman played the first Ronald McDonald in 1963?
Willard Scott
Willard Scott had played Bozo the Clown on Washington TV; when that show ended he helped the local McDonald's operator invent a clown of its own, wearing a paper cup for a nose.
Q 30Before Sourdough Sam, the 49ers' first mascot in the 1950s and 60s was what?
A mule named Clementine
A mule named Clementine, after the folk song about a forty-niner's daughter, patrolled the 49ers' sideline in a maroon saddle blanket during the 1950s and 60s.