March Madness mascots take center stage during NCAA men's and women's tournaments

Fans navigating the dozens of schools in the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments might become as attached to the mascots as the athletes themselves.

Furry, animated characters used as rallying points for teams with unique nicknames have been around for decades, and this year's March Madness will have some dandies.

Wearing the costumes of badgers and beavers, gators and griffins, horses and hornets, pilgrims and patriots, among others, here's a look at some of the participating schools and the stories behind their mascots and monikers:

St. Francis Red Flash

Tiny St. Francis University in Loretto, Pennsylvania, joined the list of two dozen men's teams ever to make the NCAA Tournament with a losing record, earning an automatic berth by winning the Northeast Conference tournament.

With its grinning, bald-domed Frankie the Friar mascot, the Red Flash reached the Big Dance for the first time since 1991. The school of about 2,000 students is sure to gain more fans if it can make some tournament noise.

Habit-wearing Frankie debuted in 1983 and underwent a makeover in 2009. The Catholic-Franciscan school's student newspaper first referred to the football team as “The Red Flashes” in 1927.

UC San Diego Tritons

King Triton will be busy. The mascot of UC San Diego is making his debut in both the men's and women's tournaments in the school's first year of eligibility after moving up from Division II in 2020 to join the Big West Conference.

The bearded, beaming King Triton wears a crown and carries a three-pronged trident. While King Triton has legs, a Triton is described in Greek mythology as the son of Poseidon and a sea warrior with the lower body of a fish. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography is part of UC San Diego, whose campus in La Jolla is next to the Pacific Ocean, hence the Triton nickname.

Akron Zips

Akron's nickname originally was the Zippers, named after popular 1925 rubber galoshes with metal fasteners sold by tire manufacturer B.F. Goodrich. The school's athletic director shortened the nickname to the Zips in 1950.

A few years later, a contest was held to create a mascot. The winner was a kangaroo called Mr. Zip with boxing gloves and a zipper. However, since only female kangaroos have pouches, Mr. Zip would eventually become a she, named Zippy.

Grand Canyon Lopes

Thunder the Antelope seemingly can do it all, posing for photos with Grand Canyon University fans, rappelling to the arena floor from the ceiling and jumping off a trampoline to dunk a basketball.

And to think there was a time when it didn't have a name — and wasn't even Grand Canyon's first mascot.

Arizona's Grand Canyon, also playing in the men's and women's NCAA tournaments, started its Antelope nickname in 1949, later shortened to the Lopes. A hairy mascot known as the "Purple People Eater" was replaced in 1981 with the antelope mascot, which didn't get its current name until Thunder stuck in 2008.

South Dakota State Jackrabbits

What’s not to like about a bunny named Jack?

The only U.S. college known as the Jackrabbits, South Dakota State has had the moniker for so long that it’s not exactly clear how the nickname came about.

It either occurred in 1905, after a newspaper cartoon said the South Dakota football team “was as quick as Jackrabbits,“ or in 1907 after a school yearbook poem changed the publication’s name to Jackrabbits, and the athletic teams followed suit. It wasn’t until 2010 that the mascot's name, Jack, was selected.

The state of South Dakota has two species of jackrabbits, which are actually hares and have longer ears and bigger bodies than rabbits.

Aside from the fictional character from "Alice in Wonderland," the Jackrabbits also will be known as the March Hares if South Dakota State can make a long tournament run. The school is in the women's tournament for the 13th time since 2009.

St. John’s Red Storm

Johnny Thunderbird returns as St. John's competes in the men's tournament for the first time since 2019.

The Thunderbird mascot made its debut in 2009, 15 years after the school changed its nickname from Redmen to the Red Storm. According to the school, the Thunderbird was defined during the fan vote as a “mythological spirit of thunder and lightning believed by some Native Americans to take the shape of a great bird.”

Lately, the bird has gotten plenty of exposure in its native New York City. The Thunderbird recently had a cameo role in a video alongside coach Rick Pitino and NBC "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon, and it appeared with the school pep band and dance team on NBC's "Today" show.

Behave, young mascot

Mascots are normally well-mannered, though that's not always been the case during March Madness.

In the 2006 men’s tournament, Stanford’s unofficial tree mascot was ejected for not leaving the court fast enough after halftime.

Tennessee’s mascot, Smokey the bluetick coonhound, got tossed from the 1996 women’s national championship game against Georgia for destroying a stuffed Bulldog, causing a 15-minute cleanup delay.

And there was a physical altercation at the 1994 men's Final Four between the mascots for Arizona and Arkansas. Arizona’s mascot, Wilbur the Wildcat, was tackled from behind and sustained a knee injury.

Bruce Pearl the fill-in

College coaches have to get their start somewhere. In the case of Bruce Pearl, coach of men's No. 1 overall seed Auburn, there was a brief stint as a mascot in the NCAA Tournament.

As a student at Boston College, Pearl was a personal assistant to basketball coach Tom Davis in 1981. When the team's mascot, Eddie the Eagle, became sick, Pearl came off the bench and donned the bird beak and feathers for one game during March Madness. He even borrowed a stepladder and stood behind the opponent's basket, flapping his arms — uh, wings — as a distraction as Ball State players shot free throws.

“They had a meeting after the game and they were going to throw me out,” Pearl recalled in 2005. “I broke like five NCAA rules.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness