It was later changed to a bulldog in an attempt to make the school – Arizona State Teacher's College at the time – appear more in line with Yale and other universities that held a higher level of respect.

[3] The State Press, the student newspaper, ran frequent appeals during the fall of 1946, urging the Bulldog to be replaced by the new Sun Devil.

Two years later, Stanford Alum and Disney illustrator Berk Anthony designed "Sparky", a devil holding a trident[2] (colloquially referred to as a pitchfork[4]).

The school also announced that they planned to continue using the iconic mark in various ways, including marketing and selling apparel alongside the new version of the character.

[9][10] Arizona State University President Michael Crow indicated that officials were meeting with student leaders to discuss the issue;[9] afterwards, Sparky's new look was scrapped on March 19, 2013.

The school later announced that it had created a program for members of the ASU community to vote on Sparky's redesign in which users were able to choose between different features for the mascot.