New Mike the Tiger

This is Mike VI. In case you want to learn more about him:

A GROWING LOVE AFFAIR
LSU's 400-plus pound mascot, Mike VI, is winning the hearts of fans young and old
Saturday, January 05, 2008
By Billy Turner
Staff writer

It was a Wednesday, days before Christmas.

A gray sky sheltered Tiger Stadium, but beyond that enormous building, stacked between the football and basketball homes of LSU Tigers, was the environment that housed the newest of Mike the Tiger, a 15,000-square foot area.

Out beyond the athletic facilities, a warm wind kicked up, and drops of rain began to fall. The sky was ominous to the East, with black clouds forming a marching army.

Still, families came by to see the large feline, staring in past the glass or past the fencing.

Mike VI was oblivious to all that. As the rain drops hit him, on his stomach since he was lyingon his back like a house cat that had escaped to roll in the front yard, he didn't even tense. He didn't care that moisture was gathering. He seemed to care about nothing.

But when a leaf blower cranked up to his left, the howl piercing the air outside his palatial home, he cared. He rolled, and the enormous cat leaped to his feat. He strode to the edge of the cage and peered out. A golf cart rolled by, and that seemed to capture his attention.

It was just another day in the life of a wonderfully playful cat the size of a Volkswagen.

Norma Compton, a grandmother from Wichita, Kan., ignored the impending rain. She walked to the fencing and stared in.

"I'm here to visit my granddaughter," she explained. "We purposefully came to see Mike. He's a tradition. It's just fun to see a beautiful tiger like this. You don't often see them in zoos."

Laura Compton is getting her master's degree in education from LSU and was to graduate just before Christmas. But the afternoon wouldn't be complete, Norma said, without a visit to see the cat.

Minutes later, the Holland family arrived.

Travis Holland is a student at LSU. He was wearing LSU pants as he led his mother, sister and father to the edge of Mike's shelter.

"I'm a student, and my family wanted to see him," Holland said. Sister Jessie, mother Terrie and father Melvin are from Shreveport.

"We live in Shreveport," said Terrie, "and my parents live in New Orleans. We had to come see the Tiger. We love him, we love animals. Travis was telling us he is very young and very big, and he is."

The families were but a few of the almost constant flow of people who have come to see the tiger who replaced Mike V. Mike V died in May of renal failure.

At the time, LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman said, "Mike V was a noble mascot who was loved by Tiger fans young and old, and he represented all that is proud and dignified about LSU."

Mike VI, who was named Roscoe at the time, arrived in August.

He's been a huge hit.

"He's had a lot more visitors," said Bobbie Grand, public relations officer of the Tiger Athletic Foundation. "Dr. (David) Baker estimated that about 100,000 visitors per year came to see Mike V, and we believe there are more people coming to see Mike VI.

"He is just so friendly and out-going. On a daily basis hundreds come to see him."

LSU has had a live tiger mascot since 1936, and the tales that have grown up around the Tigers are legendary. The original Mike was purchased from the Little Rock Zoo for $750 that year. His name originally was Sheik but was changed to Mike for Mike Chambers, who was the LSU athletic trainer when the first mascot was purchased.

The first Mike was placed in the Baton Rouge Zoo for about a year before a permanent home was constructed. He was at LSU for 20 years before dying of pneumonia.

Through the years, traditions have grown around the tiger, such as the one that says for every growl of Mike elicited before a football game, the Tigers will score a touchdown that night.

The tiger stopped traveling with the team in 1970 when his cage overturned on Airline Highway en route to a game. In the mid-1980s, someone cut the locks on Mike IV's cage and freed him, but he was returned safely. Tulane students kidnapped Mike the Tiger in 1950.

But Mike VI might turn out to be the most popular of all the mascots. When he was released into the facility Sept. 1, he immediately showed his style.

"He played with a big purple ball that was placed in the environment, and he went swimming almost immediately," Grand said. "It was so sad when Mike V died. We were so worried. Were we going to get another one, we wondered. It was what he represented that meant so much to people.

"Turns out this one is just so fantastic," said Grand, who has chronicled the lives of the Tigers through photographs, many of which are in her office in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center where she overlooks Mike VI's habitat.

"Dr. Baker did a fantastic job finding this cat. When they released him into his environment, it was like, 'this is great.'"

Grand said the TAF gets a lot of calls asking what is the best time to see the tiger. She laughed, "We don't really know. He's a tiger. He sleeps whenever he wants to and gets up whenever he wants to. We had an elderly couple call and ask us, and we told them the morning might be best. They said that wouldn't work for them, like we were going to go and tell the tiger. They came in the afternoon.

"I've seen him raise up and put his paws on the glass near where kids are placing their hands. I've seen the kids come by wearing their LSU clothing. He loves his handlers, too. He reacts when he sees them."

Though the Tigers don't travel any longer, Grand said there had been pressure to take Mike VI to New Orleans for the BCS championship game. "I don't think they would let him go riding in that trailer, though."