In 1934, Athletic Department trainer Chellis “Mike” Chambers, Athletic Director T. P. Heard, Swimming Pool Manager and Intramural Swimming Coach William G. “Hickey” Higginbotham, and LSU law student Ed Laborde decided to bring a real tiger to LSU, then known as the “Ole War Skule.”They raised $750, collecting 25 cents from each student, and purchased a two-hundred pound, one-year-old tiger from the Little Rock Zoo. The cub was born on October 10, 1935, and was originally named Sheik. His name was changed in honor of Chambers, the man most responsible for bringing him to LSU. Interestingly, Mike I must have remembered his original name because even years later Hickey Higginbotham could get him to roar just by calling Sheik. Early in the morning on Wednesday, October 21, 1936, onlookers lined Highland Road, awaiting the entourage arriving from the train station. LSU students staged a campus strike equal to none to welcome their new tiger mascot to campus. Mike I would assume his duties only three days after arriving on campus. He would reign at LSU for nearly twenty years, traveling with the team and serving as the LSU mascot. Mike I died on Friday, June 29, 1956 of complications associated with kidney disease. He was twenty years and eight months old at his death. He created a legacy in which Mike the Tiger has come to symbolize the heart and soul of LSU athletics. Following Mike’s death, a fund was established to perpetuate his memory by mounting his pelt in a lifelike manner and displaying him at the university’s Louisiana Museum of Natural History, where it remains to this day.
A few days after the death of Mike I, Representative Kenneth Deshotel of St. Landry introduced a resolution in the Louisiana legislature endorsing the purchase of another tiger. On campus, the Mike the Tiger Fund was launched by Student Body President Enos Parker and fellow students Vic Koepp and John Nunn. On August 4,1956, the LSU Board of Supervisors passed a resolution stating that caretaker salaries and maintenance costs for the new tiger would come equally from student fees and the Athletic Department.
Mike II was born on February 28, 1956, at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. He arrived secretly on campus on September 28, 1956. Mike’s unveiling occurred the next day, September 29, opening day of football season. A ceremony was held, during which Enos Parker presented a check for $1,500 to George Douglas, superintendent of the Audubon Zoo.
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Address: 3510 Drusilla Lane # A, Baton Rouge, LA 70809
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