Bully the Bulldog
| Bully | |
|---|---|
Bully I
|
|
| University | Mississippi State University |
| Conference | SEC |
| Description | English Bulldog |
| First seen | Unofficial - 1905 Official - 1935 (Ptolemy & Bully I) |
Bully is the official mascot of the Mississippi State University Bulldogs in Starkville, Mississippi, and the name is given to both the costumed mascot and the live bulldog that appears at State games. The live mascot Bully is an American Kennel Club registered English Bulldog, and each dog is given the inherited title of "Bully". The name "Bully" is traditionally considered a title and not the official name of the specific dog that holds it.
Mississippi State's athletics teams have had a variety of different nicknames throughout the years. The teams were called the "Aggies," as a reference to the school's agricultural roots as Mississippi A&M College. When the school officially became Mississippi State College in 1932, the teams adopted the nickname "Maroons," as that was the color of their uniforms. "Bulldogs" became the official nickname for State teams after the school was granted university status in 1961, but use of the nickname dates back to at least 1905.
In 1935, Mississippi State head football coach Major Ralph Sasse acquired an English Bulldog in an effort to inspire his team. The dog was named "Ptolemy" (after the Greek mathematician and astronomer Claudius Ptolemy), and was affectionately nicknamed "Tol." The dog was "rented" from the Edgar Webster family in Memphis to serve as the team's mascot.
After Tol's arrival, Mississippi State defeated both Army (a college football powerhouse during that era) and Alabama. After the team posted a 8-3 record, State fans agreed that bringing on a mascot had been a good move, so Joe Rice Dockery (an alumnus and the proprietor of Dockery Farms), bought a bulldog named "Bully," a littermate of Ptolemy, and presented him to the school as a gift.
Ptolemy's littermate became the first mascot called "Bully" shortly after Sasse's team beat mighty Army 13-7 at West Point that same year, perhaps the greatest victory in MSU football history. But Bully (retroactively named "Bully I") earned other fame the hard way, in November 1939 when he was struck and killed by a campus bus. The students held a funeral for Bully that so elaborate that it was covered by LIFE magazine. Bully I was buried under the bench at the Scott Field 50-yard line.
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