Lion Mascot

The first student lion mascot was Tommie Dodd, a freshman from Klondike. Dodd made his first appearance as the lion at the 1971 Homecoming game, wearing a suit crafted by his mother and grandmother. Dodd served as the lion mascot for the next three years at his own expense and without official sanction from the university. After Dodd’s graduation, and by popular vote of the student body, the school began electing two students each year to serve as a lion and lioness mascot. Due to funding shortages, ET dropped the lioness mascot in the mid-1980s and retained the lion mascot, called “Lucky the Lion.”