Mike the Tiger

Not sure if you know this, but a tiger is a real life animal. They existed long before confederacy. Also, pretty sure they eat all races. And this is coming from a liberal, commy, left-wing nut job, as some of you older, whiter gentleman would typically put it.

I've heard we dubbed ourselves the Tigers because it was the thing to do at the time, naming your school mascot after a ferocious animal.

The fighting tigers came up later. So its more of a coincidence, than us explicitly naming ourselves after the confederate regiment you mentioned.

Bayou Bengals, Chinese Bandits, Fighting Tigers. Who tf cares anyway, dont you have something better to do with your time? Or are you just trying to start problems where there are none? lol gtfoh

If LSU were to get rid of Mike the Tiger and the Tigers nickname, I would completely stop my support of LSU athletics and the university.

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live mascot named after the Louisiana Tigers

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was there a confederate soldier named Mike or something? cauuuse if not, i don't know how an actual live tiger can be named after the Louisiana Tigers.

Volunteers fought for the US flag and saved New Orleans from the British

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Shall we explore Smokey's origins or the Tennessee Vols origins as far as names go we look hard enough I'll bet we can dig up something on it

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Smokey's origins are simple. We held open auditions and Smokey's responses (howls) in front of the crowd won him the job.

As for our nickname... do you for real not know this?

Firstly, "Mike" the Tiger came from Mike I in 1935, the first Tiger mascot whose name was originally 'Shiek', but changed to 'Mike' in honor of Mike Chambers, the orignal trainer of Mike I at LSU. Every subsequent live mascot has been Mike. We are now up to Mike VII.

And........so sorry to disappoint you, but the LSU Tiger name has nothing whatsoever to do with the Civil War, the Va. soldier batallion, or any other militia nickname prior to 1893:

LSU and the Bengal Tiger:

The Bengal Tiger has been the official mascot of Louisiana State University since 1936. In 1893, LSU (In particular Coach Charles Coates) chose the Panthera tigris tigris because it was the custom at the time to choose a name based upon a vicious animal. Dr. Charles Coates, who was Dean Emeritus, College of Pure and Applied Science and the Tigers' first Head Football Coach who was affiliated with LSU from 1893-1939, detailed this history in the following letter to the LSU Alumni News in October of 1937:
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It was the custom at that time, first in the Northeast and Ivy League, and then the South, for some occult reason, to call football teams by the names of vicious animals; the Yale Bulldogs and the Princeton Tigers, for example. This was and is still the vogue.

It ALSO struck me that purple and gold looked Tigerish enough and would suit a growling Tiger head.
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How The Tigers Got Their Name - Dr. Charles Coates

So, although the LSU football uniform also reminded Coates of the colorful uniforms similar to those worn by the French Army Zouaves, and the moniker had been used as a nickname by various Louisiana military units that pre-dated the Civil War, the LSU football team was actually just named after......the cat (in accordance with custom at the time of using animals, borrowed from Coates' Northeast schools' roots), not a military unit.

The later tiger head symbol came from the Washington Artillery of New Orleans. A militia unit that traces its history back to the 1830s and during the Spanish-American War, not the Civil War. The Washington Artillery had a logo that featured a snarling tiger's head similar to that which adorns LSU's football helmet.

The point of this post was to show where LSU got its nickname for its athletic teams - 'Tigers.' It was from Dr. Charles Coates, LSU's first football coach, who chose a name he though would (1) be en vogue with the rest of the South choosing names of ferocious animals, as had been the custom in the northeast and Ivy League (where Coates came from), and (2) that LSU's colors of royal purple and old gold (which he also chose from the local store selling Mardi Gras ribbon) would go well with a growling tiger head.

Decades later, at an alumni banquet and through a newspaper interview, he related the above, plus the 'insinuation' and assumption by some that the name somehow came from the Louisiana Tigers regiment who fought in Virginia during the Civil War - a nickname given to them for their ferociousness. But, Coates stressed that he wasn't even thinking of that in 1893 - THIRTY YEARS AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER. And he dismissed this notion that some LSU fans naturally assumed was true, but never was.

So, all these people that just assume that the name Tiger came from a Civil War regiment, are woefully and monumentally incorrect......

And why is that? Can you even READ ???

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The later tiger head symbol came from the Washington Artillery of New Orleans. The Washington Artillery had a logo that featured a snarling tiger's head similar to that which adorns LSU's football helmet.

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That's actually pretty cool.

It is pretty cool.

Me and MetryTyger used to cut up on Rivals Soundoff board back in the day. I was kinda pranking him, I had a different username then, one that was was frequently banned.It was fun psychology for me. He doesnt remember, but I was concerned when a tornado roared through close by his home way back then.


So, to sum this up... Mike the Tiger ... He Gone !