Name-a-Day Calendar, July 26: SIU Edwardsville Cougars
Page 262 of 365
Chosen in: 1966
Chosen by: Student Chris Henderson
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) was established in 1957 as a branch campus of the original Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. The State of Illinois did not initially expect SIUE to see much enrollment, but the campus immediately proved popular and boomed enough to develop its own identity separate from its parent school.
In June 1966, school administrators decided that this identity should include a mascot separate from Southern Illinois’ Saluki, so they solicited suggestions from the student body. They ended up choosing the cougar, suggested by student Chris Henderson. When the SIUE men’s basketball team first took the court in fall 1967, they were known as the Cougars from the jump.
The school would house a total of two live cougar mascots between 1968 and 1986.1 They’re currently represented by a costumed cougar named Eddie.
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This article used to have a photo library but it was apparently stored in Adobe Flash and is no longer accessible, even through the Wayback Machine.
SIUE rebrand this year tho
They have a big statue of just "e" too
SIUE is weird but cool