College Football's Top 25 Mascots
Nothing like a little fluff on a Friday to take a bit of a breath before the
big weekend. What are the 25 coolest, best, and most identifiable
mascots in college football? Along with Colorado's Ralphie the Buffalo,
here are CFN's choices for the 25 best in the game.
By Pete Fiutak
CollegeFootballNews.com
Posted Nov 10, 2006
Rip on a college football fan's mother and you're asking for trouble. Rip on the mascot of a college football fan's
favorite team and you'd better be prepared to throw down.
From intimidating animals to quirky traditions to goofy costumes, the mascots across the college football
landscape are as unique and revered as anything identifiable with anything found in any other sport.
So how is it even possible to rank which mascots are the coolest? Obviously it's all subjective, so the attempt is
to find the ones most synonymous with their schools and teams and which, at least with our experiences, inspire
the most passion. Compiled by the staff of CollegeFootballNews.com, here are the 25 best mascots, or more to
the point, the most identifiable symbols in college football.
1. Colorado - Ralphie
Some mascots are cute, some mascots are funny, and some symbols get the crowd roaring.
Colorado's Ralphie the Buffalo is the most intimidating and the one that inspires the most awe
from fans and foes alike. Just before the start of the game and before the second half, a 1,100
to 1,300-pound buffalo leads the team onto the field in a semi-controlled 20-to-25 mile per
hour sprint. The animal has handlers who hang on for dear life and try to keep it somewhat
contained, and while it could probably tear off and do whatever it wanted if it was inclined to
do so, there's never been a problem. Five sophomores take it on a run just before going onto the field just to
make sure it's a little bit cashed.
It all started in 1934 when when a group of students paid $25 to rent a buffalo calf that required four handlers to
keep it under control on th