re: LSU's Mascot Name

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This person is trying to convince you through shoddy history "alternatives" to abandon your heritage. Don't take the bait from this snowflake.

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Sorry. The LSU Tigers are NOT named after a Confederate fighting group.

LSU chose the Panthera tigris tigris because it was the custom at the time to choose a name based upon a vicious animal. Dr. Charles Coates, who was the Tigers' first coach and the man who came up with the idea of the Tiger as the mascot, detailed the history of the LSU Tigers in the following letter to the LSU Alumni News in October of 1937:

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It was the custom at that time, for some occult reason, to call football teams by the names of vicious animals; the Yale Bulldogs and the Princeton Tigers, for example. This is still the vogue. It struck me that purple and gold looked Tigerish enough and I suggested that we choose "Louisiana Tigers," all in conference with the boys. The Louisiana Tigers had represented the state in Civil War and had been known for their hard fighting.

This name was applied collectively to the New Orleans Zouaves, the Donaldsonville Cannoniers, and to a number of other Louisiana companies sent to Virginia, who seemed to have the faculty of getting into the hardest part of the fighting and staying there, most of them permanently. One company I knew of went in 200 strong; only 28 returned and many of these were wounded.

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How The Tigers Got Their Name - Dr. Charles Coates