Mascots make college sports fun

Vikings and Tigers and Bears, oh, my!

It's NCAA basketball tournament time, and you know what that means: hyper college students stuffed inside hot cos-tumes and trolling the sidelines at the men's and women's games.

A lot of those suits fall into one of four categories: birds, bears, dogs and cats.

There are Gamecocks, Hawks, Jayhawks and Seahawks; Eagles and Golden Eagles; Bruins, just-plain Bears and Cornell's Big Red — a bear in a red suit. There are plenty of bulldogs, including Georgetown's. And then there are those cats: Wildcats, Wildcats and more Wildcats; also Tigers, Cougars, Jaguars and Panthers.

Here's a look at some of the more unusual mascots you've seen courtside.

Xavier Musketeers

"D'Artagnan" (pronounced dar-TAN-yun) and "The Blue Blob"

Talk about a mismatched pair. D'Artagnan — isn't that a great name for a mascot? — reflects Xavier's (ZAVE-yur's) ties to France.

In real life, D'Artagnan was an officer of the Musketeer guard that protected the king of France in the 17th century.

Somewhere along the way, the Ohio university teamed D'Artagnan with the Blue Blob (think Cookie Monster without the crumbs).

Stanford Cardinal

"The Tree"

"Cardinal" refers to the deep red color that represents this California university. Wanting a more imaginative mascot, the school's rowdy pep band came up with the towering, swiveling, sometimes troublemaking Tree. It has become one of the most recognized mascots in college sports, but the university has not officially claimed it.

Purdue Boilermakers

"Purdue Pete" and "The Boilermaker Special"

The history of this Indiana university is tied to the railroad industry, and its official mascot, the Boilermaker Special, looks like a 19th-century locomotive. A boilermaker is someone who makes or repairs heavy metal items. The nickname came about after a big football win, when a local reporter referred to the Purdue team as "boiler makers." But it didn't stick right away; there were some other options, among them "cornfield sailors" and "pumpkin-shuckers."

Purdue Pete came along in 1940 in an ad for the university bookstore. With his hard hat and hammer, Pete looks like a miner.

Oklahoma Sooners

"Boomer," "Sooner" and the "Sooner Schooner"

"Sooners" was the name given to early settlers who claimed land in the Oklahoma Territory before it opened to the public. Oklahoma is known as the Sooner State. The university's mascots are a covered wagon called the Sooner Schooner, pulled by matching ponies, Boomer and Sooner. In 2005, costumed mascots were added. Also named Boomer and Sooner, they look like life-size My Little Pony toys dressed in Oklahoma colors.

North Carolina Tar Heels

"Rameses"

A Tar Heel is a guy walking around with tar on the bottom of his feet. That apparently happened a lot in North Carolina, where tar was used to repair ships docked along the coast. Rameses the ram originated with UNC football player Jack Merritt, a star of the 1920s nicknamed "the battering ram."

Cal State-Fullerton Titans

"Tuffy Titan"

The team is the Titans of California State University-Fullerton, but the mascot is a big elephant named Tuffy. The mascot comes from an elephant race the school organized in 1962.

Austin Peay Governors

"The Governor"

Austin Peay was governor of Tennessee in the 1920s. The school's mascot is not the toughest-looking guy, but his cheering section does have one of the funniest chants in college sports: "Let's go Peay!"

Arkansas Razorbacks

"Big Red" and "Sue E."

Hmmm, does a team really want to be represented by hogs? They do in Arkansas, where the nickname sprang from a football coach describing his players, after a big win, as "a wild team of razorback hogs!"