Top 10 US Colleges with the Funniest Mascots
What are the funniest and weirdest mascots at US colleges? We’ve compiled a list of what mascots we think are in the top 10. Let us know what you think and if we missed any that should be in the top 10!
1. The Fighting Pickle
UNC School of the Arts
UNCSA doesn’t even have intercollegiate sports teams, but its student-invented unofficial mascot is a pickle wearing a Shakespearean hat, a painter’s beret, fake mustache, and a piano-key tutu. It’s basically every arts discipline crammed onto one cucumber.
2. The Geoduck
The Evergreen State College
Pronounced “gooey-duck.” It’s a giant burrowing clam native to the Pacific Northwest, complete with an unofficial fight song called “The Mighty Geoduck.”
3. The Banana Slug
University of California, Santa Cruz
Administrators wanted a sea lion. Students rebelled and voted in a banana slug. This mascot fits perfectly with UCSC’s no-varsity-scholarships and anti-jock campus culture. The banana slug became the official mascot in 1986.
4. The Fighting Okra
Delta State University
Delta State’s official mascot is the Statesmen, but students decided that wasn’t intimidating enough. Instead, they invented a green vegetable wearing boxing gloves and a scowl, under the slogan “Fear the Okra.” It’s technically unofficial but has completely eclipsed the real mascot in popularity (it even made it onto the Food Network).
5. The Fighting Artichoke
Scottsdale Community College
When the college poured money into building up its athletics program against student wishes, the student government got revenge by proposing the most unintimidating mascot options imaginable: an artichoke, a rutabaga, or “a scoundrel.” The artichoke won.
6. The WuShock
Wichita State University
An anthropomorphic, scowling bundle of wheat with a face. It’s meant to represent a “shock” (a traditional method of field-drying harvested wheat).
7. The Boll Weevil
University of Arkansas at Monticello
Named (in 1909) after the tiny beetle that was devastating Southern cotton crops at the time. This is an interesting choice given the insect was actively ruining the local economy.
8. Big Red
Western Kentucky University
A six-foot, 25-pound, mute “huge furry creature” that’s red, round, and basically a blob with eyes. It’s so visually distinctive that WKU sued an Italian TV network in the 2000s over a character it claimed was a copy.
9. The Billiken
Saint Louis University
Nobody fully agrees on what a Billiken is. Most describe it as a cross between a Buddha, an elf, and a Yoda-adjacent gremlin. It started life in 1908 as a good-luck charm doll designed by an art teacher, and a sportswriter overheard SLU’s football coach being compared to one. It was history after that.
10. The Gorlok
Webster University
The gorlok is a made-up creature with a cheetah’s paws, a buffalo’s horns, and a St. Bernard’s face. The name itself is a mashup of two streets that intersect near campus: Gore and Lockwood.
