Mascots

Bert Smith "Yea Maroons" Game Card

Before we were known as “the Colonels,” Eastern athletes went by the moniker “The Maroons.” We were almost known as “The Leopards,” in an attempted mascot change during the 1920s. However, a plan to buy a leopard from a zoo in Memphis fell through, and we remained The Maroons until 1963. It was then that President Robert Martin altered our mascot to The Colonel. It’s stuck with us ever since.