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There are Lions, Tigers, and Bears (oh my), but the sporting world also has its share of Wizards, Yankees, and Maple Leafs. Rather than track down every high-school mascot on the planet, we decided to focus on professional and Division One college sports. In Major League Baseball, eight of the 30 teams are named for some sort of fearsome or flying creature. The field levels considerably in football.
Here, 14 of the 32 mascots are named for animals, including the Bengals, Eagles, and Rams. Like MLB, just eight of the NBA's 30 teams are named for animals. Interestingly, the majority of teams with furry or feathered mascots are relatively new to the league (Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Bobcats, etc.). The distinction blurs a bit in hockey (what the heck is a "Predator," anyway?), but we again found eight of the NHL's teams are named for animals. Which brings us to the big kahuna -- college sports. We looked at every Division One college basketball team (336 in total, according to Yahoo! Sports) and found 195
of the squads (give or take) are named for either an animal or a mythical creature (the Golden Griffins, for example). Some teams, like the Alabama Crimson Tide, have a non-animal name but an animal mascot (the elephant), while others, like the Stanford Cardinal, use a name that sounds like an animal but really refers to a color. Confused yet? So to answer your original question, animals don't make up the majority of mascots in professional sports, but they do in college athletics. And as for the least intimidating
mascot of all time, we vote for the Centenary Gentlemen. We're quaking in our cleats just thinking about them...
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