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The University has identified a strong candidate to become the next Mike the Tiger. Plans are underway to bring the cub to campus sometime in August.
Ginger Guttner, spokesperson for the Vet School, said the cub is not yet the official Mike VI.
“I wouldn’t say it’s correct to say we have a Mike VI at this point,” Guttner said. “But [what] we have right now a is tiger [cub] who is identified as a candidate. Once he’s gone through the quarantine, and then we’re sure everything is fine, then he’ll be Mike VI.”
“Plans are now underway to bring that tiger to LSU sometime in August,” Guttner said. “At which point the tiger will be quarantined for at least two weeks and after that – and only after that – will the tiger [be] Mike VI.”
Guttner said further information, such as where the cub came from, cannot be released.
Guttner said while there is a possibility of the new cub arriving before the first football game, there is also a possibility it may not.
“Right now we’re not even sure how we’re going to get him down here,” Guttner said. “The plan is to have it happen in August. And whether or not that’s before the first football game, I honestly can’t tell you.”
Guttner said the University is working on transportation issues and until those details are solidified, more information will not be known. Guttner said once the cub has arrived and surpassed the pending conditions, a formal naming of Mike VI will occur.
“Right now… the next step is to figure out transportation,” Guttner said. “[Once] he’s gone through that quarantine… we will have a formal thing, he’ll be let out into the enclosure, and it’ll actually be ‘now we have a Mike VI.'”
The University has been looking for a replacement to Mike V after he died of kidney failure May 18 after emergency surgery.
Mike V began his reign at the University in 1990 after he was donated by Dr. Thomas and Caroline Atchison of the Animal Zoological Park in Moulton, Ala. He attended his first game in Feb. 1990 at an LSU-Alabama basketball game and was moved into his home, north of Tiger Stadium, on April 30, 1990.
In 2001, Mike V’s habitat became the center of a $2.9 million fund-raising campaign. Work began on the project in Nov. 2004, and the new habitat was completed in time for the 2005 football season.
According to MiketheTiger.com, a Web site run by the Tiger Athletic Foundation, the first Mike came to the University in 1934 after Athletic Director trainer Chellis Mike Chambers, Athletic Director T.P. Heard, swimming pool manager and intramural swimming coach William G. Hickey Higginbotham, and law student Ed Laborde raised $750 from students to purchase a tiger from the Little Rock Zoo. After his death 20 years later, the beloved Mike I was replaced by Mike II in 1956.
Six months after arriving at the University, Mike II mysteriously disappeared in the midst of the football team’s six-game losing streak. Rumors that Mike II had died of pneumonia and had been secretly buried by University officials flew around campus, and a statement was issued in The Daily Reveille that Mike was “having trouble adjusting to his enclosure and was therefore being kept inside until he becomes more accustomed to the excitement of being a mascot.” He later reappeared, but many continued to believe Mike II had been replaced and was really Mike III.
Mike III came in 1958, and was considered the most successful mascot in terms of athletics – reigning over LSU’s first national championship, along with three SEC championships, 13 bowl games and an overall 142-50-7 record. Eighteen years later, Mike III died of pneumonia after the only losing season of his life.
The oldest tiger, Mike IV was donated by Busch Gardens to the University in 1976. He made headlines in 1981 when LSUPD found him rooming around the PMAC and the Bernie Moore Track Stadium. As a prank, several students had cut the chain on his cage, allowing Mike IV to break free of his habitat north of Tiger Stadium. One broken tree and three tranquilizers later, Mike IV was safely returned to his habitat. Mike IV was replaced by Mike V in 1990 and later died at the age of 20 in 1995.
—Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]