# Female mascots? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 27, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934 "2005-01-27T16:05:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/1 "2005-01-27T16:05:19Z")
Are there any school mascots that are clearly female? It seems to me of all the schools I know of, college and high school, I can only think of one that was truly a female figure. Henryetta High School in Henryetta, OK had as its mascot the hen. They were the Henryetta Hens named after the Disney cartoon character. They changed it in the ‘70s as I remember because the boys’ teams kept being kidded about being the “Hens”. The girls’ teams, it might be noted, were called the “Lady Hens” (talk about the height of redundency). And when your citing your examples, let’s not count things like “Lady Warriors” or “Lady Buffs”. Also I am talking school not team. I believe the women’s teams at University of Wyoming are called the “Cowgirls” but the macot for the school is still the “Cowboy”. I might mention there is a school in the Texas Panhandle where the mascot is the “wolf” but the girls teams are wolverines (who knew a wolverine was the distaff side of the wolf family?) I thought maybe all-girl schools or schools named after women might have female mascots. Any help? TV ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/2 "2005-01-27T16:18:30Z")
I thought maybe you meant the fuzzy-suited mascot character, who bounces around during games. Many of those have young women inside. That wolves/wolverines thing stands on its own. Nothing I could say would make it any more absurd. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/f19dbf/32.png) [@Only\_Mostly\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Only_Mostly_Dead)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/3 "2005-01-27T16:19:11Z")
North Carolina State typically brings both a female and male mascot to games. The male looks like a fop, and the female like and dog version of Minnie Mouse. I can find plenty of pictures of the male mascot, but none of the female in a quick search. On [this page](http://www.turnersouth.com/network/shows/blue-ribbon/episodes/article/0,,3325,00.html) I found the following: > [@](#): > > Mr. and Mrs. Wuf, North Carolina State University > The call of the wild rings loudly in Raleigh thanks to a howlin’ duo named Mr. and Mrs. Wuf. N.C. State adopted the Wolfpack nickname in the 1940s, briefly using a husky as a mascot. The students weren’t fooled, though, and the school eventually decided on a wolf costume. When State added women’s athletics in the 70s, a female mascot was introduced, and the Wufs were formally married by Wake Forest’s Demon Deacon in a gametime ceremony. The two mascots aren’t just eye candy–they’re an important part of the school’s national powerhouse cheerleading team. . So still not a single female mascot, but an official female mascot in some capacity. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/4 "2005-01-27T16:36:06Z")
I just remembered, Purdue Universtity’s Purdue Pete® character had a female counterpart for a year or two. She was called Purdue Patty, or some such. It just wasn’t a good idea. Purdue Pete has changed a wee bit over the years. He used to wear something that looks like one of those folded-paper printer’s hats. Now he wears a hardhat. Some have speculated that Pete’s face has been gradually changed to more closely resemble the square-jawed basketball coach, Gene Keady. The Purdue teams are the Boilermakers and the Lady Boilers. Pete himself is a boilermaker, of course, but I don’t think his mug has ever been on the uniforms. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/5 "2005-01-27T16:45:30Z")
Female sports mascots are known by the technical term “strippers”. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/6 "2005-01-27T17:08:15Z")
When it comes to women’s colleges, some of the most famous ones don’t have mascots at all. I think several of the Seven Sisters are mascotless. Of smaller women’s colleges with mascots that I can recall offhand, Sweet Briar has “The Vixens”, obviously feminine. Mary Baldwin College has “The Squirrels”, which is gender-neutral, but I believe their particular squirrel is meant to be female. Randolph-Macon Woman’s College has “The Wildcats”, which is also gender-neutral, but the mascot is known as “Wanda the Wildcat”. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/7 "2005-01-27T17:23:26Z")
The official mascot of the University of Delaware is [YoUDee](http://www.udel.edu/PR/YoUDee/), the Fightin’ Blue Hen. But I think it’s supposed to be a boy. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/8 "2005-01-27T17:34:49Z")
[Here](http://www.wolfpackcheer.com/images/mascots2.html) are some pics of Ms. Wuf of NC State in action. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/9 "2005-01-27T17:59:38Z")
The mascot for the women’s school St. Mary’s (South Bend, IN) is the Belles. It’s a take on “The Bells of St. Mary’s”. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/10 "2005-01-27T18:43:32Z")
I went to Texas A&M, and the mascot situation there is a little fuzzy. We are known as the ‘Aggies’ because the A in A&M stands for Agricultural. Some of our spirit yells still refer to Aggies as “Farmers.” One of the most popular logos or symbols found on A&M merchandise is “Sarge.” Sarge is like a cartoon drawing of a military drill instructor (representing A&M’s past as a military institution and the continuing presence of the Corp of Cadets as a major institution on campus.) The Sarge logo is all over the place, but, AFAIK, there has never been a Sarge mascot costume. (We’ve got the real cadets for that). Finally, the official mascot of Texas A&M is the dog Reveille. Reveille is a Collie, is considered the highest ranking member of the Corp, and is always a female. So, officially, A&M has a female mascot. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/11 "2005-01-27T18:47:55Z")
I went to Bowling Green State University, and they have Freddie and Frieda Falcon: [http://bgsufalcons.collegesports.com/trads/bgsu-falcons.html](http://bgsufalcons.collegesports.com/trads/bgsu-falcons.html) Freddie was introduced in 1950, and the female version of the mascot got her start in 1966 as Mrs. Freddie Falcon. Since then she’s morphed into Frieda, Freddie’s little sister (weird, I know), and the student inside the suit is female (Mrs. Freddie’s costume was piloted by a male cheerleader). At the all-female academy I used to work at, the mascot was a jaguar, so gender neutral there. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/12 "2005-01-27T19:43:12Z")
Good heavens, I forgot my own college mascot! Syracuse’s mascot is a giant fuzzy orange. With legs and a baseball cap. No, really. [Look!](http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0702/070802ottotheorange.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/13 "2005-01-27T20:47:37Z")
Still they are the “Orangemen”. And when the women of A&M, Purdue or Bowling Green play, I will be willing to bet that they are the “Lady Aggies”, “Lady Falcons” or “Lady Boilers” (now that sounds like a 1950s housewife, “isn’t that cute she can boil things”), which to me (on all of those) says the real mascots are not so gender neutral however many skirts one may put on last year’s male mascot. This is sort of sounding like a rant, sorry. I was just looking for female mascots. Now the “Belles” of St. Marys and “The Blue Hens,” they are clearly female mascots. I was a sportswriter in a community where the high school mascot was the Grizzlies whether the individual competiting was male or female. If I ever called a team or an individual the Lady Grizzlies or a Lady Grizzly in a sports story, headline or cutline, I could expect a call from the elderly superintendent of schools who would point out that Joannie Jensen had as much right to be a Grizzly without a prefix added to it as Steve Jensen did. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/14 "2005-01-27T20:56:00Z")
> [@TV time](#): > > If I ever called a team or an individual the Lady Grizzlies or a Lady Grizzly in a sports story, headline or cutline, I could expect a call from the elderly superintendent of schools who would point out that Joannie Jensen had as much right to be a Grizzly without a prefix added to it as Steve Jensen did. The Mishawaka High School mascot is the Cavemen. The women’s team is called the Lady Cavemen. How’s that for a kick in the nuts? ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/15 "2005-01-27T21:58:04Z")
They’re not a school mascot, but the [mascots for the Staten Island Yankees](http://www.siyanks.com/index.cfm?npageid=578) (Single A affiliate of the New York team) are Scooter the Holy Cow and her colleagues Red and Huckleberry. Perhaps some schools have cow mascots as well. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2005, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/16 "2005-01-27T22:28:58Z")
UCLA has a male and female versoin of their mascot: [http://espn.go.com/page2/s/minkoff/031124.html](http://espn.go.com/page2/s/minkoff/031124.html) ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/17 "2005-01-28T00:39:14Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > UCLA has a male and female versoin of their mascot: And I notice that the male version has a football jersey on and the female has a cheerleader’s uniform on. Why do I think the position will not be reversed during women’s volleyball games? Still, I will say the mascot is the Bruin and when the mascot appears on the cover of the University’s PR package it will have one bear and that one will not have a dress on. ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/18 "2005-01-28T00:48:29Z")
The University of Alberta mascots are the Golden Bears (mens teams) and the Pandas (womens teams). They have their own logos and mascots - the logos can be found on [this page](http://www.logoserver.com/CIS.html) (about one-quarter of the way down the page). ---
**Author:** ![greythound](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@greythound](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greythound)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/19 "2012-12-08T16:04:36Z")
Don’t forget the University of Florida has Albert and Alberta the Alligator! ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934/20 "2012-12-08T21:33:18Z")
> [@greythound](#): > > Don’t forget the University of Florida has Albert and Alberta the Alligator! Whew, I am so glad you reminded me. After nearly 8 years, I had nearly forgotten. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-mascots/286934.md?page=2)