re: Origin of Tiger Mascot

Below is an article from the Times Picayune that helps explain it. I especially like the part where the Tigers wouldn't let the officers dumping captured whiskey barrels on the ground stop their fun.

The state’s first Tigers
Lee’s Tigers.
Mean anything to you?
Unless you're a history buff -- and I'm not -- it probably won't. But I had the opportunity last week to find out about them. They were the Louisiana infantrymen who fought in the Civil War in the Army of Northern Virginia for Gen. Robert E. Lee.
I had heard there was a good connection between them and the world we live in today. So I went to hear Terry Jones, professor of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and the author of "Lee's Tigers," explain to a crowd gathered at the Confederate Memorial Hall Museum that this was one of the most bizarre military units in this nation's history.
Jones said that as he embarked on his research some years ago, he heard that these soldiers were "total wharf rats, cutthroats, thieves and drunkards." He unearthed letters, diaries, memoirs and newspaper stories in an effort to learn more about them.
"I went into the book thinking that I was going to find out that they really weren't that bad," he said. But he found out that they were worse than he imagined.
First, a little background:
Jones said that when people think of immigrants arriving in this country, they think of New York's Ellis Island. But back in 1860, New Orleans was one of the biggest points of entry for Irish, English, German, Italian and Polish newcomers. Because the city's population already included a sizable number of French Creoles, Jones said, the 1860 census shows that nearly half the people in New Orleans had been born outside the United States.
"What I found was that all these stories of misbehavior and rioting usually involved this foreign element," he said. That was understandable, because, Jones said, "most of them were dirt poor . . . and had spent a lifetime of just fighting to survive." When the war broke out, many of them joined the army simply to get a paycheck and some square meals.
Some 24 nationalities were represented among the 12,000 Tigers who left Louisiana in 1861.
What made the Louisiana troops unique, Jones said, is that several of them adopted a Zouave uniform. Zouaves were French Algierian infantrymen, precision drilling troops who wore colorful uniforms, toured the United States and were quite popular.
The Louisiana troops who adopted their uniforms wore red fezzes and, said Jones, "looked like heavily-armed Shriners."
One Louisiana battalion was organized by a man named Gaston Coppens, a French Creole who had attended French military academies. He had blue-blooded Creole aristocrats for officers but his troops were all rogues and renegades.
In Alabama when their train made a breakfast stop, the troops uncoupled the officers' car and stole the train. In Montgomery they looted the town, stole liquor and shoes. The men were so uncivilized and barbarous that it was not unusual for officers to shoot their own troops dead.
Jones said that when the troops hit Virginia, there were reports and comments in the Richmond newspaper and letters home that said: "They are composed of the wharf rats of New Orleans." "Wilder and usually drunker than many Indians." "They roam about the city like a pack of untamed wildcats."
"One of their tricks," said Jones, "was to walk into a bar, drink all they could hold and then tell the bartender to charge it to the government." Then they'd bolt and go to the next bar.
There's the story of confiscated barrels of whiskey ordered dumped into a ditch to keep it away from these troops. That didn't stop them, said Jones. "They got down on their hands and knees and lapped it up like dogs."
But the name "Louisiana Tigers" can be traced to Major Roberdeau Wheat's battalion. Wheat was an Orleanian, a man mountain at about 6-foot-6 and 275 pounds. One of his companies was known as the "Tiger Rifles." They wore Zouave attire and, said Jones, "they were the ones who really became well-known for fighting at First Manassas and pulling out their Bowie knives and attacking when they ran out of bullets.
"They became so notorious that Wheat's entire battalion became known as the Tiger battalion."
And as the legend grew and other outrageous behavior was all blamed on the Louisiana troops, Jones said, "within a year all the Louisiana soldiers became known as 'Louisiana Tigers.' "
One townsperson said, "The Louisiana Tigers developed such a reputation for pilfering and general loutishness that when anyone sees them coming, they bolt the doors and windows."
The tradeoff was that, as unruly and drunk and out-of-control as they were, they were the fiercest fighters on any battlefield.
"Terrible soldiers but excellent fighters," said Jones. "They were terrible in camp but they proved themselves over and over on the battlefield and that is why the generals put up with them."
Some 13,000 served and at the surrender at Appomattox there were 373 left.
Jones said he always suspected a link between the Louisiana Tigers and the LSU Tigers, but never could prove it. Then, some years ago, he was giving a talk in Baton Rouge and afterwards, a man came up and identified himself as the grandson of Dr. Charles Coates, a Louisiana State University professor and the school's first football coach. Eventually he sent Jones a newspaper clipping from around the turn of the century.
At the time, Coates was looking for colors for the team and a tough nickname. As the story goes, the combination of purple and gold was chosen for the colors because of Mardi Gras; apparently, as the season approached, the green had not yet arrived in stores, so the third color Carnival was left out.
"But if you were looking for something tough, there was nothing tougher than the Louisiana Tigers in the Civil War," said Jones. So Tigers it was for the nickname.
"A number of the Louisiana Tigers became professors at LSU and one became president, so there's a good connection," said Jones.
There's more:
Several Louisiana National Guard units trace their ancestry back to the Tigers. The guard units recently sent to Iraq had that connection and they were sent with New York Guard units that traced back to the 69th New York infantry, which had fought against the Louisiana Tigers.
"The units that had fought each other in the Civil War were both sent to Iraq to fight together there," said Jones. "That's a neat ending to a good story."
Yes it is.
. . . . . . .
Columnist Angus Lind can be reached at alind@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3449.

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I though Sherman was the first LSU Pres...seriously

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yes but, The Skule was located in Pineville back then...

No, I think it was fought on corona ridge.