LSU's football team plays in the NCAA Division I-FBS college football division. The home games are played in Tiger Stadium which is a rather large stadium. It holds 92,400 people. The student section is always packed at every game and no one who has seats in this section sits down for any part of any game. The team at LSU has won four national championships with their most recent being 2007 as of this writing. This has place the LSU Tigers as the first team to ever win two Bowl Championship Series titles. Their national championships were is 1958, 2003, and 2007. They have won 10 SEC Championships in the years 1935, 1936, 1958, 1961, 1970, 1986, 1988, 2001, 2003, 2007.
The Tigers will enter the 2008 season with some impressive stats. They can claim 693 victories. This makes them the 12th team with the most wins in NCAA history. They are also the 4th most of all the SEC teams. They only are behind Alabama with 787 wins, Tennessee with 771 wins and Georgia with 714 wins.
The team's official mascot is Mike the Tiger. He can be found on the campus in his state-of-the-art facility and up until recently has been the traditional Bengal Tiger. The last two Mikes were mixed breeds but were still beautiful. Since the 1950s at games, Mike the Tiger is portrayed by a student in costume. LSU adopted the "Tigers" nickname in 1896. The name is a tribute to the state of Louisiana's Confederate heritage. The Troops of the Louisiana division of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia became the Tigers during the Civil War. This was due to their courageous and heroic deeds of the two New Orleans brigades, the Tiger Rifles and the Washington Artillery. The Washington Artillery had a logo featuring the face of a snarling tiger head.
The first Mike lived a long time with LSU. He had a life span of 20 years from 1936-1956 and was purchased by the LSU student body from the Little Rock Zoo for a big whopping $750. He is now on permanent display in the LSU Natural Sciences Museum on the campus in Baton Rouge.
Rumors and superstition surround each of the tigers that have had the honor to be named as Mike the Tiger. LSU's football team's winning and losing streaks are attributed by many to the health and happiness of each of the 6 tigers that have lived on the LSU campus since the first Mike came to live there in 1936. With four of the five previous Mikes having lived to at least seventeen years of age, there may be something to these rumors. The present Mike VI is kept in splendor at a $3 million habitat built in 2005 especially designed for the needs of Mike. The funds came completely from private sources and the habitat has state-of-the-art amenities. Mike is kept in style with a 24 hour on-call veterinarian from the LSU Veterinary School always in attendance. The place has lush plantings, a waterfall and a flowing stream with a wading pond. There are rocks for Mike to sun himself on and the preserve is 15,000 square feet in size.
There are traditions that the LSU football team observes with Mike. Some are quite entertaining. Mike rides through Tiger stadium just before the start of home games with the LSU Cheerleaders perched on top of his cage. Everyone knows that LSU will score a touchdown for every roar that Mike lets go of on game day. And the most humorous tradition involves the opposing team on home football game days. Mike's cage is parked by the door of the opponent's locker room located at the southeast end of Tiger Stadium. The opposing team has to walk (or run) by Mike in order to get to their locker room.
LSU football is all about tradition and Mike is a great part of that long tradition.
