Louisiana Governor Wants LSU to Bring Back Old Game Day Tradition

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry reportedly asked LSU to consider bringing back a pregame tradition to Tiger Stadium.

WVUE reports that Gov. Landry and three other state officials recently met with Oliver Garden, dean of LSU’s School of Veterinary Medicine, and they petitioned to bring Mike The Tiger back into the stadium before football games.

As a kid and as a college student at LSU, I vividly recall seeing the live mascot paraded around the field before games, and theory has it that if the live mascot growled at the opposing team, LSU would win the game that night.

Since 2015, the live mascot, who now lives in a multi-million-dollar habitat on campus, has not been put into the enclosed trailer and paraded around the field in Tiger Stadium.

Protestors claimed that forcing the tiger into the trailer and subjecting it to loud crowd noises was inhumane. The university decided to no longer remove the live mascot from its habitat on game day.

In an interview Tuesday, Rep Wayne McMahen confirmed with the Illuminator that bringing Mike VII to football games was discussed in the meeting, but as of now, that does not look like it’s going to happen.

If you are attending any LSU  home games this season you will be greeted with new lighting features and scoreboards, but there will not be a live tiger in the stadium, and honestly, we may never see Mike again in the stadium.

The current live mascot on the campus of LSU is 8 years old and has been on campus since 2017. Rep. McMahen said in the interview that a middle-aged tiger would be startled by such changes, however, a young tiger could be trained to visit large crowds.

Fox 8 News reports that Kate Kelly, a spokeswoman for Gov. Landry, declined to comment for this report.

So, if you ever hoped to see the live LSU mascot, Mike The Tiger, in the stadium before games you may be out of luck, but visiting Mike’s gorgeous habitat on campus is always a must when at LSU.

There’s no word on what may have motivated Gov. Lanry to propose the idea of bringing the live mascot back into the stadium, but some speculate that the governor may have been approached by a donor to ask about the possibility.

Here’s a look at the last time Mike The Tiger, the live mascot, was in Tiger Stadium. I recall being at this game because it never finished due to a lightning storm in the area.