Mascot Trivia
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This mascot trivia quiz has 67 free questions with answers and covers the fuzzy, feathered and cartoon characters that sell cereal, cheer on teams and warn about forest fires. It takes in sports mascots (the Phillie Phanatic, San Diego Chicken, Mr. Met, Gritty), advertising icons (Tony the Tiger, the Michelin Man, Smokey Bear, Ronald McDonald), live college mascots (Uga, Bevo, Handsome Dan) and Olympic and World Cup mascots. A dedicated NFL mascot trivia section runs through the league's costumed characters: K.C. Wolf and the horse he replaced, the Ravens' three raven brothers, Staley Da Bear, Sir Purr's live-ball blunder, Steely McBeam's bourbon-flavoured name, Major Tuddy, Rowdy, T-Rac, Captain Fear, Rampage, Thunder, Gumbo, Billy Buffalo, Swoop's Ace Ventura cameo and the Pat Patriot logo. Questions range from easy (which cereal Tony the Tiger sells) to expert (which mascot was in the Mascot Hall of Fame's first class), and every answer is backed by a cited sentence from Wikipedia or an official team page.
30 of 67 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'mascot' comes from a French word meaning what?
Lucky charm
Lucky charm is the sense of the French 'mascotte', itself from Provençal 'mascoto', a talisman; the word spread across Europe in the early 1880s and entered English in the same decade.
Q 02According to his backstory, the Phillie Phanatic hails from which Pacific archipelago?
The Galapagos
The Galapagos Islands are his official birthplace in team lore, and he is said to have come to the city as a baseball-mad fan; his mother, Phoebe Phanatic, occasionally joins him on the field.
Q 03The San Diego Chicken, played by Ted Giannoulas, originated in 1974 as a promotion for what?
A radio station
A radio station, KGB-FM, hired the 20-year-old Giannoulas in 1974 to hand out Easter eggs at the San Diego Zoo in the chicken suit; he soon took the act to ballgames.
Q 04Mr. Met is believed to be the first mascot in Major League Baseball to appear as what?
A costumed human
A costumed human version of Mr. Met first walked Shea Stadium in 1964, the year the park opened; a giant baseball serves as his head, and he was retired in the 1970s before returning in 1994.
Q 05Gritty, the wild orange creature introduced in 2018, is the mascot of which team?
The Philadelphia Flyers
The Philadelphia Flyers unveiled Gritty on 24 September 2018, a seven-foot, googly-eyed orange creature whose backstory has him hiding for years in the team's arena.
Q 06Which cereal does Tony the Tiger promote?
Frosted Flakes
Frosted Flakes, launched by Kellogg's in 1952 as Sugar Frosted Flakes, have had Tony on the box from the start; he beat rival mascots including Katy the Kangaroo to become the sole face.
Q 07Who provided Tony the Tiger's deep 'They're gr-r-reat!' voice for five decades?
Thurl Ravenscroft
Thurl Ravenscroft voiced Tony from 1952 until his death in 2005 and also sang 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch' for the 1966 Grinch cartoon, uncredited on screen.
Q 08The Michelin Man, made of stacked tires, has what proper name?
Bibendum
Bibendum takes his name from the Latin toast 'Nunc est bibendum', 'now is the time to drink', which Michelin's 1898 poster ran beneath him raising a glass full of nails and broken glass.
Q 09The Michelin Man is notable as one of what?
The world's oldest trademarks still in use
The world's oldest trademarks still in use include the Michelin Man, drawn by O'Galop in 1898 after the Michelin brothers saw a stack of tyres at the 1894 Lyon exhibition and imagined a man.
Q 10Which federal agency has run the Smokey Bear campaign with the Ad Council since 1944?
US Forest Service
The US Forest Service launched Smokey on 9 August 1944 with the Ad Council and state foresters; the campaign is billed as the longest-running public service advertising effort in American history.
Q 11A real bear cub became the living Smokey Bear in 1950 after surviving a fire in which state?
New Mexico
New Mexico's Capitan Gap fire in May 1950 burned the cub's paws as he clung to a tree; nursed back to health, he lived at the National Zoo in Washington until his death in 1976.
Q 12Ronald McDonald lives in a fictional world called what?
McDonaldland
McDonaldland, created for 1971 commercials, was home to Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar and Grimace; Sid and Marty Krofft sued successfully, claiming it copied their H.R. Pufnstuf.
Q 13Chester, the sunglasses-wearing big cat mascot introduced in 1986, fronts which snack brand?
Cheetos
Cheetos adopted Chester in 1986, a laid-back big cat in sunglasses; the brand's original mascot had been the Cheetos Mouse in the 1970s.
Q 21Bevo, a live longhorn steer, is the mascot of which university?
Texas
Texas has fielded a live steer named Bevo since 1916; each is chosen from Texas Longhorns whose burnt-orange coat matches school colours adopted decades earlier.
Q 22Handsome Dan, one of the first live college mascots, is a bulldog representing which university?
Yale
Yale's first Handsome Dan was bought by student Andrew Graves in 1889, and the title has passed to a new bulldog each time one dies or retires; the 2016 dog was the eighteenth.
Q 23Traveler, a white horse ridden at home football games, is the mascot of which university?
USC
USC introduced Traveler at the 1961 home opener, and a succession of white horses has carried a Trojan rider onto the Coliseum turf after each Trojans score; Traveler also appears in the Rose Parade.
Q 14The Energizer Bunny was created as a parody of which rival battery mascot?
The Duracell rabbit
The Duracell rabbit had drummed in Duracell ads since 1973, but Duracell let its US trademark lapse, so in 1988 Energizer sent in a bigger, sunglass-wearing bunny that 'keeps going and going'.
Q 15The Kool-Aid Man is famous for entering a scene by doing what?
Smashing through walls
Smashing through walls has been his entrance since the 1970s TV spots, followed by the shout 'Oh, yeah!'; the pitcher-shaped character began as the 'Pitcher Man' in 1954 print ads.
Q 16The Pillsbury Doughboy, whose real name is Poppin' Fresh, reacts how when his belly is poked?
He giggles happily
He giggles happily, a high 'hoo-hoo' laugh first voiced by Paul Frees, whenever a finger pokes his belly at the end of each commercial.
Q 17The Jolly Green Giant sells what kind of products?
Canned & frozen vegetables
Canned & frozen vegetables, first peas, have carried the giant since the Minnesota Valley Canning Company put him on a label in 1928; the 'Valley of the Jolly Green Giant' is the Minnesota River valley.
Q 18Morris the Cat, 'the world's most finicky cat', advertises which brand of cat food?
9Lives
9Lives adopted Morris in 1968 after the original orange tabby was found at a Chicago-area shelter; the 'finicky' line made him a star through the 1970s, and successors have played him since.
Q 19Geoffrey the Giraffe was the mascot of which toy store chain?
Toys R Us
Toys R Us used a cartoon giraffe from the late 1950s and named him Geoffrey in the 1960s; when the chain closed its US stores in 2018, Geoffrey reappeared at the relaunched shops.
Q 20Uga, a white English bulldog, is the live mascot of which university?
Georgia
Georgia's Uga line began in 1956 when Savannah lawyer Sonny Seiler brought a bulldog to a game; every Uga since has been owned by the Seiler family and buried in a mausoleum at Sanford Stadium.
Q 24Brutus Buckeye, the mascot of Ohio State, is an anthropomorphic what?
Nut
Nut is the right word: a buckeye is the shiny brown seed of the Ohio buckeye tree, and Brutus wears a nut-shaped head; the costume has been a fixture at Ohio State games since the mid-1960s.
Q 25The first official Olympic mascot, a rainbow-coloured dachshund named Waldi, appeared at which Games?
Munich 1972
Munich 1972 introduced Waldi, a striped dachshund designed by Otl Aicher's team, whose outline was even traced by the marathon route; an unofficial skiing figure, Schuss, had appeared at Grenoble in 1968.
Q 26The World Cup mascot trend began with 'World Cup Willie', a lion, at which tournament?
England 1966
England 1966 introduced World Cup Willie, a lion in a Union Jack shirt drawn by Reg Hoye; Lonnie Donegan recorded his theme song, and he was the first World Cup mascot.
Q 27Colonel Harland Sanders founded which fast-food chain?
KFC
KFC began when Pete Harman opened the first franchise in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1952, and coined the name Kentucky Fried Chicken; Sanders sold the company in 1964 but remained its face.
Q 28The Harrison/Erickson firm designed the Phillie Phanatic after which team inspired the Phillies?
The Padres and their chicken
That inspiration was the San Diego Chicken.
Q 29Which future TV weatherman played the first Ronald McDonald in 1963?
Willard Scott
Willard Scott, a Washington DC children's TV host, played the first Ronald McDonald in 1963 local ads, wearing a paper-cup nose and a food-tray hat; he later became NBC's Today weatherman.
Q 30Before Sourdough Sam, the 49ers' first mascot in the 1950s and 60s was what?
A mule named Clementine
A mule named Clementine, after the folk song about a forty-niner's daughter, was the team's sideline mascot in the Kezar Stadium years before costumed characters arrived.