Doc (mascot)
| Doc the Tiger | |
|---|---|
Doc at a Towson Tigers men's basketball game
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| University | Towson University |
| Conference | CAA |
| Description | Anthropomorphic Tiger |
| Origin of name | Named after former athletic director Donald "Doc" Minnegan |
| First seen | 1963 |
Doc is the official mascot of Towson University. He is named after former sports department head Donald "Doc" Minnegan.
The Knights mascot may have come from the 1920s and 1930s, when an elaborate Olde English Christmas dinner was held with knights and ladies costumes, music and a pageant. The 1930 Tower Echoes used Renaissance style pictures of archers to depict athletes and campus life. In 1951, the Knight was used all over Towson with references to the campus being a Camelot with "merry court life" (student activities) and "many tournaments" (sports). The late 1950s, however, brought other mascots—the lacrosse team was the "Indians" and the wrestling team, the "Teachers".
The first appearance of the tiger on campus was with the help of Towson alumnus Lou Winkelman. He was the very first tiger mascot, in the 1963 homecoming parade. According to Winkelman, they just went to a costume shop and rented the tiger suit.
Winkelman actually introduced the tiger as the official Towson mascot winning Student Government Association's approval a year before the parade. It took about a year, but by 1963, along with the help of John Schuerholz students accepted it and Towson made the tiger its official mascot.
The tiger coming to Towson began in the early 1960s when Winkelman was a member of the men's soccer team. He says no one on the team wanted to be called the Golden Knights, the most popular name for sports teams prior to 1961.
Winkelman and his team mates had their own idea and simply adopted the tiger as their mascot. Although they wore jerseys with a knight and horse logo, they were adamant that they would be called tigers in their yearbook photo.
Student interest in the tiger remained high through the 1960s encouraged by Winkleman's weekly sports column Tiger Tales in The Towerlight, the school newspaper. The Towerlight masthead's use of the tiger image from 1966–1969 and a gift of a stone tiger statue by the Class of '67, stolen from campus a few years later.
In the 1970s, however, the Towson Tiger was rarely referenced or talked about. Other than brief sports stories, there is only one reference in a 1970s yearbook. The tiger resurfaced in the 1980s with the purchase of the first official costume by the sports program and with a major presence in almost every issue of Tower Echoes and around the campus.
In 2003 the tiger was renamed "Doc" in honor of longtime faculty member Donald Minnegan.
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