<p>George was mentioned in another thread. I found the following info on him from tirebiter.com: </p>
<p>George Tirebiter was originally a scraggly, mixed-breed dog who became student mascot at the University of Southern California in the 1940s. One version of his legend says George wandered onto the university campus after his owner died. Others recall a USC student rescued the sickly, stray dog from a beach in Santa Monica in 1946 and brought him to campus. All agree that he was dubbed “Tirebiter” for his habit of racing alongside passing cars and bicycles while snapping furiously at their tires.</p>
<p>In 1947 the USC student body made George their mascot (official? unofficial?). He led the Trojan band onto the field for each home football game often costumed in a sweater and sometimes wearing odd little hats. </p>
<p>Tirebiter posed with homecoming queens and at least once drew cheers from the students as he rode in a parade car in the Coliseum. At home football games George Tirebiter is remembered for once biting the mask nose of the rival UCLAs Joe Bruin mascot (a person dressed in a bear costume). He was dog-napped in 1947 by pranksters from the rival school who shaved his fur to read “UCLA” and covered him with honey and feathers. </p>
<p>The original, canine George Tirebiter was run over and killed in 1950 by the very tires he wished to bite (a lesson for us all) and USCs newspaper, the Daily Trojan, allegedly wrote:</p>
<p>Gone to heaven</p>
<p>where he will have cushion rides for breakfast,</p>
<p>white sidewalls for lunch,</p>
<p>and cold rubber recaps for dinner.</p>
<p>George Tirebiter I was succeeded by George II for three years (1950-52), George III during 1953 and finally George IV for 1957. USCs campus bookstore still sells a stuffed version of George Tirebiter but the Trojans switched animal mascots to a less interesting horse named Traveler in 1961.</p>
<p>Awww that’s horrible. I bet that would have counted as animal abuse too…!(it would have been funny if they got in trouble with the police over that)</p>
<p>^Yeah, that’s why cover it up with ducktape during the game, i heard. Is there anything that USC has done to UCLA statues, mascots, etc? Any good pranks?</p>
<p>Yeah, the Victory Bell, which is kept by the winner of the USC vs. UCLA game, was originally a UCLA token. But USC students stole it (forgot when) and as part of it’s return to UCLA, the “football agreement” was struck up.</p>
<p>Of course, they haven’t had the Bell in their possession for 7 years now :D</p>
<p>^ i saw the statue a few weeks ago, and the girls i was with made me take apicture of them cuddling the dog</p>
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<p>when i went to ucla for a tour my junior year, they showed us this hideous inverted fountain and explained that some clever usc students realized the internal churning power of the fountain could produce endless amounts of soap suds. so, late at night, the usc-ers took powered laundry detergent and red die, dumped it into the fountain, and watched as red bubbles and suds filled the quad. the bubbles didn’t dissapear until when, days later, the soap finally finished reacting.</p>
<p>Some other pranks that we have pulled on USC:</p>
<p>Releasing crickets into their library during finals,</p>
<p>Planting golden poppies on their football field (school and state flower)…the funny part about this is that it is illegal to harm this flower, so UCLA had to get a court order allowing them to remove the flowers…</p>
<p>And of course, the victory bell, originally a gift from their alumni association, we stole it in 1941 and now its the football trophy!</p>