He would reign at LSU for nearly twenty years, traveling with the team and serving as the LSU mascot. Mike I died on Friday, Jof complications associated with kidney disease.

Mike I would assume his duties only three days after arriving on campus. LSU students staged a campus strike equal to none to welcome their new tiger mascot to campus. His name was changed in honor of Chambers, the man most responsible for bringing him to LSU. Interestingly, Mike I must have remembered his original name because even years later Hickey Higginbotham could get him to roar just by calling Sheik.Įarly in the morning on Wednesday, October 21, 1936, onlookers lined Highland Road, awaiting the entourage arriving from the train station. The cub was born on October 10, 1935, and was originally named Sheik. They raised $750, collecting 25 cents from each student, and purchased a two-hundred pound, one-year-old tiger from the Little Rock Zoo. “Hickey” Higginbotham, and LSU law student Ed Laborde decided to bring a real tiger to LSU, then known as the “Ole War Skule.” Heard, Swimming Pool Manager and Intramural Swimming Coach William G.

In 1934, Athletic Department trainer Chellis “Mike” Chambers, Athletic Director T.

Moneyclip found at lsu game