This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/cbbvideo on 2026-02-18 15:01:05+00:00.
A/N This ended up being so long I’m gonna have to split this into multiple different parts, hope you understand
So, i’m about 5 years late to the party on this one.
In 2020-2021, the so called “Iceberg Charts” or the “Iceberg Meme” was all the rage in communities all over the internet. Basically the idea is that it’s a chart that, like an iceberg, starts at the top with more surface level stuff and as you keep going down the iceberg, the topics of discussion become increasingly more obscure and complex. It’s also pretty conventional that as you go down the iceberg the topics tend to get more weird and disturbing. So, as my favorite pastime is looking up interesting college football facts and stories, I thought I would try to tackle the curiosity I had of what a College Football iceberg would be.
That being said, as we progress down the iceberg it does start to get pretty bleak, so reader discretion is advised
Level 1
Big Red
So, Big Red is the name of the mascot for the WKU Hilltoppers, who represents Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky. He is a big, red, and furry blob.
He was created before the start of the 1979 college basketball season by WKU student Ralph Carey. WKU fans were known for waving red towels in the stands, and Carey wanted to play off of that.
Originally he sketched a bear Mascot that was wearing a sweater with the letter W, however, later on he decided not to use a known animal.
According to WKU’s branding guide, Big Red is neither male nor female.
Each year at graduation, any WKU student who portrays big red is allowed to wear the Big Red gloves on graduation day to let people know they were a WKU mascot.
Big Red was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2007.
Arthur Evans
Arthur “Art” Evans was an artist that was well known for creating logos for college athletics programs. He worked at the Angelus Pacific Company from 1932 to 1977 and it’s estimated that he was responsible for close to 90% of all mascot designs between 1933 and 1977. If you ever seen a mascot with a sailors hat on (off the top of my head the most famous ones would probably be Baylor, Oregon State, Missouri, LSU, Cal, Miami, and North Carolina State) chance are that it was created by Art.
The reasoning behind this is that licensing back then didn’t really exist in the way we think of it now, so Art and his team could go to a bunch of different colleges and as along as their mascot was the same, pitch the exact same design, but change the color and the wording on it. That’s why the old Timey logo for LSU Missouri, Auburn, Pacific, etc… all look exactly the same.
Surrender Cobra
Surrender Cobra is a meme that came out of the 2015 game in the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry but it refers to the position that many sports fans go into when they see something they don’t like on the field, stood still with both hands on their head which sort of looks like the outline of the hood of a king cobra, hence the name.
The guy in the original photo is University of Michigan state football fan Chris Baldwin. He was interviewed by The Detroit News, and mentioned that he was still stopped all the time by people who recognize him from his moment of fame. Baldwin said “It’s been fun overall, but it’s not necessarily fun being associated with that in particular,” he said. “I’m famous for being a UM student and a football fan. I don’t seek out highlights of the game or seek out the game. I’m used to seeing it now and don’t have much reaction. It’s kind of funny now that I am removed from the moment.”
Headless Mascots
Losing your head is the absolute cardinal sin of being a mascot. This is obviously because a lot of young children look up to the mascot and don’t necessarily know it’s just a guy in there. When you put on the costume, you become the mascot.
Nevertheless, every year there seems to be at least one incident of a mascot, losing their head, and then scurry off the field as fast as they can because mascots are trained to protect the illusion at all costs.
This year it was the Oregon Duck that fell victim to this
South Carolina vs Navy
In 1984, in the middle of November, South Carolina looked like one of the best teams in the entire country and one of the front runners to contest for the National Championship in two months time. In fact, the Orange Bowl had already contacted the program regarding the opportunity to play Nebraska or Oklahoma in the national title. The Gamecocks were 9-0 and had just come off a big win at home versus #11 Florida State. They were coached by Joe Morrison, who would win 1984 Walter Camp Coach of the Year at the end of the season.
Navy was struggling. They had beaten a mediocre North Carolina team, but they’re only other wins were to Lehigh and Princeton, and sported a record of 3-5-1 when South Carolina came to town. Its best player, future NFL running back Napoleon McCallum, was out with a broken leg, and five other starters also missed the game.
Navy absolutely thrashed, South Carolina, 38-21, and before 2007 there was an argument to be made that it was the greatest upset in College Football history
Level 2
First Game in Mexico
In 1896, the Missouri football team left Columbia on December 10th to play the University of Texas. After the game, Texas HC Harry Orman Robinson proposed to Mizzou HC Frank Patterson that their respective squads go on an exhibition tour to Mexico City, and without university approval, the team voted unanimously in favor of the idea.
After shutting out the Longhorns, the Tigers boarded a train, along with the Longhorns, and crossed the border.
The first stop was Monterrey, where the teams, fatigued from travel and sightseeing, played an uninspired Christmas Day game, which Missouri won. Then it was on to Mexico City where, along with playing two mixed-squad games, the players enjoyed the city and its people. Mexican newspapers were highly critical of American football, likening it to bullfighting, though the latter seemed entirely proper to the press. Second, the lack of familiarity with American football resulted in the local police attempting to break up one of the games, thinking the Americans in odd clothing were fighting one another. Third, the local oddsmakers saw the opportunity to make a few bucks, so the teams avoided potential temptations by arranging for the second game in Mexico City to end in a tie.
When they returned to Columbia Jan. 4, the Missourians had traveled 6,000 miles. That’s the last trip Patterson took as Mizzou’s head coach. He was fired, and the team captain and manager were suspended from school.
Stormy Weather
So, because Iowa State is the Cyclones, and because especially at the turn of the 20th century people would’ve found it difficult to find a mascot that would well represent a weather phenomena, the athletics teams at Iowa State have had multiple different mascots before the Cy the Cardinal mascot came about in 1954.
In the mid 1930s, Iowa State did have a mascot named Cy, but as a live dog who stayed near the cheerleaders on the sidelines of football games.
There was also Stormy Weather in 1933. Stormy Weather, who was almost certainly named after the jazz song that had just came out that year, was a goat that was owned by Iowa State cheerleader Kenneth Ruggles. Stormy Weather was given to Ruggles’ older brother by a relative, and Kenneth brought Stormy Weather to all the home football games. After the season though, Stormy Weather became sort of a nuisance at the farm. The sheep didn’t like him very much and he chewed up rope buckets and hay fork handles in the hog barn.
When he tried to eat through the side of the barn Leon Ruggles, Kenneth’s older brother, had had enough and Stormy Weather’s career came to an end under the butcher’s knife.
Slab of Bacon
Most of you may know The Axe as the trophy of the Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry, but before then they battled for the Slab of Bacon, a piece of black walnut wood with a football at the center bearing a letter that becomes “M” or “W” depending on which way the trophy is hung.
The trophy’s tenure ended, however, when Minnesota’s 1943 victory in Minnesota led to the fans rushing the field. Wisconsin student Peg Watrous was to bring the trophy to a Minnesota representative after the game, but the representative could not find her in the commotion, and subsequently lost track of the “bacon”. Reportedly, the trophy was sent to Minnesota’s locker room, but coach George Hauser refused it, suggesting such traditions be held off until after World War II. It was subsequently lost for many years, and so a new trophy, “Paul Bunyan’s Axe”, was introduced in 1948.
In 1994, Wisconsin intern Will Roleson found it in a storage closet at Camp Randall Stadium. It had evidently been maintained for some time, as game scores through 1970 were painted on the back. It is now displayed at the Camp Randall Stadium football offices.
Rice Owls steal back their mascot
u/Owlkatraz has an incredibly well written writeup of this whole ordeal that I would absolutely recommend you give a read.
But a summary while you’re here. On January 16, 1917, Texas A&M beat Rice in basketball. After the game, Aggie students noticed that Rice had left behind their mascot, a 200-pound, man-sized stuffed owl. They carried him out of the auditorium, and then questioned by security, the Aggies s…
Content cut off. Read original on old.reddit.com/…/oc_weird_college_football_histor…