2019 Gumbo final - Book - Page 84
Mike the Bachelor
ike the Tiger’s status as a bachelor with one sweet crib has
mostly been solidified since the completion of several
additions to his enclosure in 2017. But in 1945, Mike I had a
fateful encounter with a tiger femme fatale.
According to the book “Mike the Tiger: The Roar of LSU,” a student body
vote declared the majority thought Mike I needed to prove his manhood
and produce cubs. Soon after, Mike I was on his way to a zoo in Jackson
to meet his potential mate, Desdemona.
When Desdemona caught sight of Mike I, she snorted and growled. The
University’s own apex predator could not bear the huffy treatment, and
according to the book, “instead of returning the greeting, Mike I jumped
back in such fear, he landed on his back.”
The lack of tiger sex to phone home about quickly became a problem for
the late Jim Corbett, the director of sports information at the University
from 1945-55. A 2007 article from The Times-Picayune said Corbett had to
keep the story out of the media in fear of the rival school discovering Mike
I’s failed attempt at love.
“Can you imagine the hit LSU would have taken if the word got out
Mike [I] was not macho?” Corbett questioned then. “I looked [the name
Desdemona] up. She was the sexy wife of Othello in the Shakespeare
tragedy. Think of the PR tragedy LSU might have faced.”
Mike I was on campus for nine years when he met Desdamona in
1945. Eleven years before, the Tiger Athletic Foundation said athletic
department trainer Chellis “Mike” Chambers along with athletic director
T.P. Heard, intramural swimming coach William G. Higginbotham and
University law student Ed Laborde decided the Ole War Skule, as the
University was called then, needed a live tiger mascot.
On Oct. 21, 1936, students skipped class and gathered on Highland Road
with other onlookers to see their new mascot.
Mike I died in 1956 and Mike II arrived soon after. But, the new tiger died
of pneumonia after one month. With the football team in a losing season
and fearing ridicule, The Times-Picayune article said Corbett sent a
notice to The Daily Reveille, explaining Mike II was having trouble with
his new surroundings and would be kept inside “until he becomes more
accustomed to the excitement of being a mascot.”
Then-athletic department business manager Jack Gilmore said in The
Times-Picayune that he, Corbett and then campus police chief C. R.
Anderson, buried Mike II after midnight underneath a willow tree on the
Mississippi River.
“When [Corbett] got word the first Mike II died, he was already thinking
in PR terms,” Gilmore said. “He was thinking about people making jokes,
about how Mike [II] died because he couldn’t handle the shame of what
was happening on the football field.”
Gilmore quickly located another tiger cub in a Seattle zoo, and soon the
second Mike II took up his residence on campus. Ironically, he was also
short-lived, staying only one season before dying after complications from
multiple fractures to his back left leg. TAF said the University does not
know how or when he sustained the fractures.
TAF calls the tale of the two Mike II a “legend” on Mike’s official website,
but photographs from the first Mike II’s arrival and after the second was
put back in his habitat show two obviously different tigers. The story
became public knowledge when Gilmore wrote an essay about the ordeal.
Mike III was introduced on the first home game of the 1958 football
season, which also happened to be the first championship season for the
football team as they beat Clemson 7-0.
Mike III spent 18 years as the University’s mascot from 1958-76 and died of
pneumonia after the only losing season of his lifetime. TAF said Mike III is
the only tiger mascot known to have growled on command. Joel Samuels,
Mike III’s caretaker from 1965-67, used this to his advantage one gameday.
Samuels was able to get Mike III to growl by saying “Get ‘em Mike.” TAF
said during one LSU-Alabama game, Alabama’s players were crowded
around Mike III’s cage. Samuels quietly gave Mike III the signal, and
he scared the players so badly that Alabama coach Bear Bryant gave
Samuels a stern talking-to.
Mike the Tiger’s Status as a Bachelor with
One Sweet Crib has Been Solidified Since
the Completion of Several Additions to His
Enclosure in 2017.
Mike IV arrived on campus in 1976. His reign signaled a new era for the
University’s live mascot, as he was donated from Busch Gardens while
the University purchased the previous tigers. The University has not
purchased a tiger since Mike III.
TAF said Mike IV spent the summer of 1981 at the Little Rock Zoo while his
enclosure was expanded from 400 to 1,100 square feet.
Also in 1981, pranksters cut the locks on Mike IV’s cage early in the
morning. He escaped and roamed around campus, enjoying his newfound
freedom. LSUPD notified Mike IV’s vet at the time, Dr. Sheldon Bivin, who
then had the task of sneaking around campus at 1 a.m. in search of a
roughly 400-pound tiger that naturally hunts at night.
Bivin was armed with a shotgun and tranquilizer, according to The TimesPicayune article. But once Bivin found Mike IV inside the LSU Bernie
Moore Track Stadium, he shot Mike IV with three tranquilizer darts before
the feline went down and his caretakers safely returned him to his habitat.
The University retired Mike IV to the Baton Rouge Zoo in 1990 due to
declining health, and he died there in 1995 as the oldest Mike ever.
Mike V had an unusual introduction to the University because Mike IV was
not actually retired by the time he arrived on campus. TAF said Mike V is
considered to be the friendliest and most playful mascot of all.
One of the most notable events in Mike V’s reign was the “I Like Mike”
campaign in 2001, a fundraising effort to improve and expand Mike V’s
habitat. The project was completed in 2005 and Mike V moved into his
new home in August 2005. He died in 2007 from kidney failure, because
he was too weak to withstand the anesthesia from emergency surgery.
Mike VI came to the University in 2007 when he was 2 years old. In May
2016, Mike VI was diagnosed with spindle cell sarcoma, an inoperable
form of cancer. Despite treatment, Mike VI’s tumor grew and his condition
worsened. On Oct. 11, 2016, Mike VI was euthanized in his night house.
Mike VII is the University’s current tiger mascot. He was donated from a
wildlife sanctuary in Florida, and was introduced to the public on on Aug.
21, 2017.
Story // Raymond Constantino
Photo // Isabella Allen
Design // Chloe Bryars
Mike the Tiger enjoys the cold weather on Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018, in his habitat on LSU campus.
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