College dog mascots made the news in upstate New York this week. That’s because Union College in Schenectady revealed its new mascot called Charger. While the costumed mascot itself is a garnet-colored, generic dog, the college has a real-life dog mascot too: it’s a red fox Labrador retriever. That’s a breed I’ve never heard of before.
Anyway, besides Union College, there are more colleges with dog mascots that you might imagine. Sure, you probably know that the University of Georgia are the bulldogs and that the University of Connecticut are the huskies.
However, canine college mascots don’t end there. And they’re not limited to Division One schools with well-known sports teams.
College dog mascots
I did some digging and came up with a handful of dog breeds that institutions of higher learning from D1, Division Two and Division Three schools have chosen as their school mascot.
In fact, dog mascots are the third most common college animal mascots, only behind eagles and tigers.
Here are some sports names for dogs.
Schools with bulldog mascot
The bulldog is one of the most popular school mascots across all college divisions. You’ll find a bulldog cheering on the sidelines at these colleges and universities:
- Alabama A&M (an HBCU)
- Butler
- Georgetown
- James Madison University (JMU)*
- UNC-Asheville
- University of Georgia
- Yale
*JMU refers to its bulldog mascot as the Duke Dog. However, it looks like a bulldog and, at one point, was a live bulldog at sporting events.
Here are dog names for places.
Boston Terrier mascot
It’s not surprising that Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, has chosen the Boston terrier as its mascot.
What is surprising is that Wofford University in Spartanburg, South Carolina has a Boston Terrier as well.
One would assume that this school might have chosen a more traditionally southern dog breed, such as the state’s official dog, for its mascot. That state dog of South Carolina, according to the AKC, is the Boykin Spaniel. They’re known as little brown swamp dogs. Look how cute they are!
Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Not only is the Chesapeake Bay retriever the official mascot of UMBC–the University of Maryland Baltimore County–the dog breed is also the state dog of Maryland.
Golden Retriever
The University of Tulsa in Oklahoma is known as the Golden Hurricanes. However, since running around in a tornado mascot costume is probably a challenge, the school has instead chosen a golden retriever named “Goldie” as its canine mascot.
Also, at one point Kent State University had a golden retriever named “Flash” as its mascot. These days, though, Flash is a golden eagle.
Great Dane mascot
The Great Dane is the mascot of the University of Albany, part of the SUNY system in New York State. For the longest time, Albany was the sole school to use a Great Dane for its mascot.
However, in 2022, Bluefield State, an HBCU in West Virginia, literally adopted a Great Dane and proclaimed it the school’s new mascot. The dog’s name? Not surprisingly, Blue.
Greyhound college mascot
When I think about the greyhound as a team mascot, of course I think about the show “Ted Lasso” and the fictional British football club the Richmond Greyhounds. However, this article is about real-life dog mascots for colleges and universities.
Here are some of the schools with a greyhound college mascot:
- Assumption
- Loyola University Maryland
- Moravian College
- University of Indianapolis
Hounds dogs
Even though the University of Tennessee is known as the Volunteers, it relies on the Bluetick Coonhound to be its mascot. At Tennessee games you might see a real-life coonhound wearing a Tennessee jersey, or a character of a coonhound in costume.
It appears that Tennessee is the only school in the United States that uses a Bluetick Coonhound for its mascot.
However, there are other schools with some kind of mascot hound, such as John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Its mascot is the bloodhound and its sports teams go by the John Jay College Bloodhounds.
I don’t know about you, but I think about bloodhounds as the dogs that help solve crimes. So, this connection to John Jay is just perfect–“chef’s kiss.”
Colleges with Husky Mascot
The University of Washington has the Siberian husky as its mascot. On the other side of the country in Connecticut, the University of Connecticut just refers to the husky (generically) as its mascot. The shorthand for it would be the UConn Huskies.
Other schools with a husky mascot include:
- University of Southern Maine
- Michigan Tech
- Northeastern
- Northern Illinois University
- St. Cloud State University
Irish Setter
Pace University in New York State referred to its mascot and teams as simply the “setters” for many years. However, the school recently confirmed that T-Bone, its red-hued mascot is, in fact, an Irish setter.
Scottish Terrier mascot
Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh chose the Scottish terrier as its mascot. The teams at this Division III school are known as the “Tartans” as a nod to founder Andrew Carnegie’s Scottish heritage.
Yes, the school colors are a tartan plaid.
Pittsburgh is one of the most dog-friendly cities in America.
However, CMU isn’t the only “Scotties” in higher education. Agnes Scott College in Georgia also has a Scottish Terrier as its mascot.
Other college dog mascots
Of course, there are other colleges and universities with a dog mascot. They may be the only one to have that breed, which is why I couldn’t cluster them with the breeds above. However, that doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve some recognition.
So, here are other colleges that have a dog mascot and what kind of dog that is.
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
The dog mascot for Southern Illinois University Carbondale is the Saluki. So, they are the SIU Salukis.
I just learned about the Saluki breed when writing this article on the fastest dog breeds. They are a Western Asian sighthound.
So, if you’re wondering which college has a Saluki mascot, it’s Southern Illinois University Carbondale. If I find another school with this mascot, I’ll be sure to update this article.
Texas A&M University
The Texas A&M University mascot is a collie called Reveille. Over the years, there have been many different Reveille dogs.
In 2021, the school announced that they were adopting Reveille X or, from my understanding, the 10th collie to be the school’s mascot. It is a live collie that stays on the sidelines during university sporting events.
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
Perhaps because this University of Wisconsin brand campus is located in a place called Stevens Point, the mascot is a pointer dog. And can you guess its name? Stevie.