Smokey (mascot)

Smokey
Smokey IX
University	University of Tennessee
Conference	SEC
Description	Bluetick Coonhound
First seen	1953
Hall of Fame	2008
Website	http://www.utsports.com/trads/tenn-trads.html

Smokey is the mascot of the University of Tennessee sports teams. These teams, named "The Volunteers" and nicknamed "the Vols", use both a live and a costumed version of Smokey.

There is an actual Bluetick Coonhound mascot, Smokey X, who leads the Vols on the field for football games. The Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity cares for the hound on the University of Tennessee campus. There is also a costumed mascot that appears at every Vols game and has won several mascot championships.

In 1953, the University of Tennessee Pep Club held a contest to select a coonhound, a breed native to Tennessee, to serve as the school's live mascot. Announcements of the contest in local newspapers read, "This can't be an ordinary hound. He must be a 'Houn' Dog' in the best sense of the word."

The late Rev. W.C. "Bill" Brooks entered his prize-winning bluetick coonhound, "Brooks' Blue Smokey," in the school's contest. At halftime of the Mississippi State game that season, several dogs were lined up on the old cheerleaders' ramp at Shields-Watkins Field for voting. Each dog was introduced over the loudspeaker, and the student body cheered for their favorite. "Blue Smokey" was the last hound introduced. When his name was called, he barked. The students cheered and Smokey threw his head back and howled again. This kept going until the stadium was in an uproar, and the University had found its mascot. "Blue Smokey" would compile a 10-10-1 record during his two seasons as Vols mascot. Tennessee's first mascot met a sudden and tragic end in 1955, as he was fatally struck by a car after escaping from his home.

Smokey II ("PR Brooks Blue Smokey II") took over for his father as the Vols' mascot when he was only 3-months-old. In 1955, students from the University of Kentucky kidnapped him for eight days, dressing him in a blue and white blanket with a large ‘K’ and parading him around at a Wildcats pep rally. Smokey’s captors returned him just before kickoff. A week later, three Vanderbilt students tried the same heist at the Brooks house, but ended up taking an old hunting dog instead. Smokey II was also involved in an incident with the Baylor Bears' live bear mascot Judge at the 1957 Sugar Bowl, with the bear taking a few swats at the hound. In 1963, Smokey died in Lexington shortly after the Vols' game against Kentucky, reportedly because someone fed him a chocolate pie.

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Wikipedia