Louisiana State University is the flagship university of Louisiana. Located in the state capital of Baton Rouge, LSU is home to over 30,000 students and a very special live mascot.

Like Texas has Bevo, LSU has Mike the Tiger. 

Mike I arrived at LSU in 1936, and the animal currently found on campus is Mike VII. His habitat is one of the most famous visiting spots on campus, including elements of LSU’s renaissance architecture and facts educating Mike’s visitors on the living subspecies of tigers.

The LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, the primary caretaker of Mike the Tiger, ranks in the top third of veterinary schools in the United States with funding from the National Institutes of Health. 

Until 2016, Mike was a big part of home football games. His cage on wheels would be topped by LSU cheerleaders and ridden through Tiger Stadium. Before the start of the game, he would then be parked by the opponent’s locker room. Since Mike VI’s death, the mascot has not left its habitat.

The famous LSU sign of “Geaux Tigers” derives from a common ending in French Cajun names, acknowledging the state’s French heritage. The saying is used in support of the LSU athletic department’s 21 varsity sports.

In the past two years, LSU women’s sports have been bringing home the national championships. Since 1977, the Tiger gymnastics team has won a collection of individual national titles, but it wasn’t until 2024 that the program won its first ring as a team. 

With a final score of 198.225, the Tigers clinched the title.

Just a year before, it was women’s basketball that brought home the trophy. The 2023 final between LSU and Iowa is the sixth most-watched women’s March Madness game with 9.9 million viewers. 

The men’s programs are also not short on recent success. 

LSU baseball is a seven-time national champion team, with the most recent one coming in 2023. Baseball is the third-most successful sport at LSU with seven national titles, following women’s outdoor track and field with 14 and indoor with 11. 

The most popular sport in Baton Rouge, however, is college football – and LSU is pretty good at it. 

In the 2020 College Football Playoff national championship game, the Tigers defeated Clemson 42-25 to win their first title since 2007. They are four-time national champions and 12-time SEC champions. 

The program has a total of 52 national championships under its belt and ranks in the top 20 of most successful college athletics programs.