Ralphie

Colorado has two live buffalo mascots, Ralphie IV and Ralphie V. Ralphie leads the football team out on the field both at the start of the games and second half. It is truly one of the special sights that exist anywhere in college or professional sports, especially for opposing teams, who often stop in their tracks watching the massive buffalo round the end zone and head directly at their sideline. The buffalo first appeared in 1934, three weeks after a contest to select an official school nickname by the Silver & Gold newspaper had come to an end. “Buffaloes” was the winner. For the final game of the ‘34 season, a group of students paid $25 to rent a buffalo calf (son of Killer, a famed bison at Trails End Ranch in Fort Collins)along with a real cowboy as his keeper. It took the cowboy and four students to keep the calf under control on the sidelines, a 7-0 win at the University of Denver on Thanksgiving.

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