This LSU trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers everything a Tiger fan argues about on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge: the four football national championships, the three Heisman winners, the Chinese Bandits, the Earthquake Game and the Bluegrass Miracle. It also digs into the parts of LSU that get less airtime, from Skip Bertman's baseball dynasty and Warren Morris's walk-off to Pete Maravich's scoring records, Kim Mulkey's 2023 title and the gymnastics team's first national championship. There is campus history too: William Tecumseh Sherman as the school's first superintendent, Huey Long and the dormitories built inside Tiger Stadium, the live oaks, the 1893 game where the colors were supposedly chosen because the green ribbon had sold out, and every live tiger from Mike I to Mike VII. Questions run from easy to expert, and every answer was checked against a primary or encyclopedic source, so you can settle tailgate arguments with confidence. Geaux Tigers.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Louisiana city is LSU's main campus located?
Baton Rouge
The campus sits on a 650-acre plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River, just south of downtown. LSU moved there from the old federal garrison grounds that are now the site of the state capitol.
Q 02What is the name of LSU's live tiger mascot?
Mike
Mike is the name of both the live tiger and the costumed mascot. The current animal, Mike VII, is a Bengal-Siberian mix.
Q 03What is the nickname of LSU's Tiger Stadium?
Death Valley
Bear Bryant once said Baton Rouge was the worst place in the world for a visiting team, 'like being inside a drum.' The NCAA ranked it the loudest stadium in college football in 2013.
Q 04How many football national championships does LSU claim?
Four
The titles came in 1958, 2003, 2007 and 2019. The 2007 team was the first two-loss team ever to win the national championship.
Q 05Which LSU quarterback won the Heisman Trophy in 2019?
Joe Burrow
Burrow threw for 4,366 yards and 44 touchdowns that season, setting LSU records and tying the SEC mark, as the Tigers went 15-0 and beat Clemson for the title.
Q 06Who was LSU's first Heisman Trophy winner, in 1959?
Billy Cannon
Cannon's 89-yard punt return against Ole Miss on Halloween night 1959, in which he broke seven tackles, remains the most famous play in program history.
Q 07How many College World Series titles had LSU baseball won through the 2025 season?
Eight
The titles came in 1991, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2009, 2023 and 2025. The first two both ended with wins over Wichita State in the championship game.
Q 08Which Civil War general served as the school's first superintendent when it opened in 1860?
William Tecumseh Sherman
Sherman resigned after Louisiana seceded in January 1861. After the war he donated two captured Confederate cannons that had fired on Fort Sumter, and they still sit in front of the Military Science building.
Q 09According to legend, why did LSU end up with purple and gold as its colors in 1893?
The green ribbon for Mardi Gras had sold out
The first team wore makeshift uniforms with purple and gold ribbons for a 34-0 loss to Tulane in New Orleans, the only game LSU played that year.
Q 10What is the seating capacity of Tiger Stadium?
102,321
That makes it the second-largest stadium in the SEC behind Texas A&M's Kyle Field, the fifth largest in the NCAA and the seventh largest in the world.
Q 11Which coach led LSU to its 2003 national championship before leaving for the Miami Dolphins?
Nick Saban
Saban was hired from Michigan State on December 1, 1999. He announced his departure for the Dolphins before the Tigers played the 2005 Capital One Bowl.
Q 12Which coach's second-string 1958 defensive unit was nicknamed the 'Chinese Bandits'?
Paul Dietzel
Dietzel's three-platoon system rotated whole units between plays: the White Team, the Gold (Go) Team and the Bandits. LSU's band still plays a 'Bandits' song after big defensive stops.
Q 13The 1988 LSU-Auburn 'Earthquake Game' got its nickname because the crowd's roar registered on what?
Q 21Where does LSU play its home baseball games?
Alex Box Stadium
It is named for Simeon Alex Box, a 1942 LSU letterman and Distinguished Service Cross recipient killed in North Africa in World War II. The playing surface is Skip Bertman Field.
Q 22In 2023, which two LSU teammates became the first pair from one school to go 1-2 in the MLB draft?
Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews
Skenes, a transfer from Air Force, went first to Pittsburgh and Crews second to Washington, weeks after they had won the College World Series together.
Q 23Which pitcher was the first LSU player taken first overall in the MLB draft, in 1989?
Ben McDonald
A seismograph in a campus geoscience building
The demonstration seismograph sat about 1,000 feet from the stadium in the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex and was there for school groups. The winning play was a Tommy Hodson touchdown pass to Eddie Fuller.
Q 14The 2002 'Bluegrass Miracle' was a last-second LSU touchdown against which team?
Kentucky
Marcus Randall's heave was tipped by a Kentucky player into the hands of Devery Henderson, who scored as time expired. Kentucky's players had already doused their coach with Gatorade.
Q 15Which LSU guard is still Division I men's basketball's all-time top scorer (3,667 points)?
Pete Maravich
He averaged 44.2 points a game over three seasons without a three-point line or a shot clock. Caitlin Clark passed his overall NCAA Division I mark in 2024, but the men's record still stands.
Q 16LSU's 2023 women's basketball national title came with a 102-85 win over which team?
Iowa
It was the highest-scoring championship game in tournament history, and LSU's 59 first-half points were also a record. Angel Reese was named Most Outstanding Player.
Q 17Who coached LSU's women's basketball team to that 2023 national championship?
Kim Mulkey
Mulkey arrived from Baylor in 2021 and won the title in her second season, making her the first Division I coach to win national championships at two schools.
Q 18In which year did LSU's women's gymnastics team win its first national championship?
2024
The title came under coach Jay Clark, with a roster that included Haleigh Bryant, Kiya Johnson, Aleah Finnegan and Olivia Dunne.
Q 19Whose walk-off home run beat Miami 9-8 in the 1996 College World Series final?
Warren Morris
With two outs and LSU trailing 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth, Morris swung at the first pitch and lined the ball inches over the right-field fence.
Q 20Which coach won five national titles with LSU baseball between 1991 and 2000?
Skip Bertman
Bertman came from an assistant job at Miami in 1984 and later served as LSU's athletic director. The field at Alex Box Stadium was named for him in 2013.
McDonald went to the Baltimore Orioles after winning the Golden Spikes Award. LSU has produced 23 first-round picks in total.
Q 24In 1907 LSU became the first US college team to play football on foreign soil, beating which opponent 56-0?
University of Havana
The Bacardi Bowl was played on Christmas Day in Havana, Cuba. John Seip ran back a 67-yard punt return in the rout.
Q 25How was the first Mike the Tiger paid for in 1936?
Twenty-five cents collected from each student
The $750 raised bought a tiger originally named Sheik from the Little Rock Zoo. He was renamed for athletic trainer Mike Chambers, and handlers found he would still roar when someone called 'Sheik!'
Q 26Which rival school's fans kidnapped Mike I in the 1950s and returned him sprayed green?
Tulane
He and his cage were found in New Orleans painted Tulane green before the game. The LSU-Tulane series was the program's defining rivalry for most of the 20th century.
Q 27What happened on the morning of November 28, 1981, involving Mike IV?
He escaped after pranksters cut his cage locks
He roamed for hours, attacked a small tree and got trapped in the track stadium before three tranquilizer shots brought him home. He lived to 21, the oldest of LSU's tigers.
Q 28By legend, what did Huey Long have built inside Tiger Stadium in 1936 to fund seats through the back door?
Dormitories
Seats went on top of student housing, more than doubling capacity to a horseshoe. The football team even lived in the stadium dorms during the 1986 season.
Q 29How many seats did Tiger Stadium have when it opened in 1924?
12,000
Those first seats are the lower halves of today's east and west sideline grandstands. The south end zone was enclosed in 1953, making it a 67,720-seat bowl.
Q 30Which Garth Brooks song is played at every LSU home football game?
Callin' Baton Rouge
The song, originally recorded by the Oak Ridge Boys, has become a fourth-quarter singalong staple in Death Valley.