Mike the Tiger
[3] Born on October 10, 1935, the first Mike was purchased from the Little Rock Zoo with money raised by collecting 25 cents from each LSU student for a total of $750.
Originally named Sheik, the new mascot was renamed in honor of Mike Chambers, LSU's athletic trainer at the time, who was the person most responsible for bringing him to the school.
A few days after Mike I's death, a resolution endorsing the purchase of another tiger was introduced in the Louisiana legislature and a fund was set up by LSU students to underwrite the cost.
To explain Mike's absence, and after much rumor, the LSU student newspaper, The Daily Reveille, printed a statement that the young tiger needed time alone to adjust to his new home and position as mascot, with its attendant excitement.
On May 15, 1958, however, less than two years after his debut, Mike II (or his impostor) died at the Audubon Zoo due to pneumonia,[5] while recovering from multiple fractures to his left rear leg.
Mike III was born on November 26, 1957, and arrived from the Seattle Zoo just in time for LSU's 1958 National Championship football season.
The mascot's death affected the students and faculty so greatly that the vet at the time, W. Sheldon Bivin, said he would never allow another tiger to die on campus.
The tiger roamed freely for hours, attacked a small tree, and appeared to be enjoying himself before becoming trapped in the Track Stadium near his cage.
[4] Mike IV reigned for 14 years and retired in 1990 to the Baton Rouge Zoo where he lived until his death in 1995 at the age of 21, the oldest of the tigers serving as LSU's mascot.
Originally named Stevie, he was donated by Dr. Thomas and Caroline Atchison of the Animal House Zoological Park in Moulton, Alabama.
In his 17-year reign, Mike V saw an LSU football team win another National Championship (in 2003) and received both a new trailer and a massive renovation of his enclosure.
[10] "Roscoe" arrived in Baton Rouge on Saturday, August 25, 2007, after a plane ride from Indiana and was kept quarantined in the "night house" in the LSU habitat, away from the public.
The product of an "unintended breeding" at Great Cats, University staff believed his youth, size and temperament may give the athletic department a "more ferocious mascot much sooner than watching a cub grow up at LSU."
On May 23, 2016, LSU issued a press release stating that Mike VI had been diagnosed with a spindle cell sarcoma, a type of cancer, which later spread.
[18][19] On January 19, 2017, LSU announced a timeline concerning searching for a tiger to become Mike VII, hoping to have him join an incoming freshman class in August 2017.
The habitat (situated between Tiger Stadium and the Pete Maravich Assembly Center) features state-of-the-art technologies and includes among its amenities lush plantings, a waterfall, a flowing stream that empties into a wading pond, and rocky plateaus.
This team of students help Mike get to his games and events on time, help him with his costumes, and bring him to Walt Disney World every January to compete in a mascot competition.
