From Stretch to Boomer: A history of our mascots

Although the mountain lion has stood as our school's symbol in recent memory, the fierce feline has not always acted as the face of UCCS. Just a little over two decades ago, when UCCS was only composed of three buildings, the university did not have a mascot. It did not even have an official sports program. It featured sports clubs, and those clubs, back in the mid to late'80s, called themselves The Hawks.

Doug Fitzgerald, the UCCS Athletics Information Director, explained that the university struggled at first to establish an intercollegiate sports program, and at the time, UCCS Athletics was not taken seriously. "There was a bias towards Boulder at that time," he explained, "and the regents did not like the name [of The Hawks]."

Instead, the CU regents suggested names that were plays on CU Boulder's Buffs, such as "The Baby Buffs" and "The Austin Buffs." By the late ‘80s to early ‘90s, in response to the subordinate names suggested by the regents, UCCS chose to go with something completely different: The Gold.          

Fitzgerald insisted that the choice of a mascot that was an abstraction is not new or unique. Stanford University's mascot is The Cardinal – the color, not the bird – and the symbol for the mascot is a tree.

Then, in the mid ‘90s, there was another change of mascot. This time, as the rumor goes, a student suggested a giraffe, because a giraffe suit was discovered in the student's garage. This giraffe, Stretch the Longneck, became UCCS's official sports mascot up until 1999, when SGA, at the behest of the student body, demanded a new, less-comical face for UCCS. Students voted for the new mascot, and they chose the mountain lion, later named Boomer, to represent the university. The mountain lion was embraced immediately.

Today, Boomer is "incredibly popular," as Fitzgerald noted. Boomer will not be going anywhere any time soon, except "to the play-offs."