The Secret Life of Live Mascots

Since 1892, when a Yale student showed up at a sporting event with his pet bulldog, Handsome Dan, collegiate sidelines have been like Disney's Animal Kingdom, crawling with critters big and small, chosen to represent their school's very literal spirit animal. In the days before such acts became (thankfully) more regulated, football teams shared the field with actual bears and cougars, led around loosely with little more than leashes of rope.

"When I played at Houston, ole Shasta the Cougar, he'd be right there on the sideline with a rope around his neck, looking very unhappy about it," James Mayfield, father of Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield and himself a former Houston backup QB,…