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Often the choice of a mascot reflects a desired quality. A common example of this is the "fighting spirit," and competitive nature which is personified by warriors or predatory animals. Mascots may also symbolize a local or regional trait. For these reasons colleges and universities have employed dogs as their mascot or athletic representative. The most widely accepted breed is the English bulldog. There are about 39 universities across the nation that use bulldogs as their mascot. Among some of these colleges are Georgetown University Hoyas, University of Georgia Bulldogs, Gonzaga Bulldogs, Yale Bulldogs, Fresno State Bulldogs and Butler Bulldogs.
 Georgetown University's mascot is Jack the Bulldog. Around 1926, Georgetown used a bulldog named “Hoya”. Throughout the years the dog changed breeds until recent years when the school purchased a bulldog that was a show dog. Georgetown wanted to call the dog “Hoya” but the dog didn’t reply to any name but “Jack”, his show name. Therefore, Jack the Bulldog came into place. This particular bulldog grew favor amongst the students, as he was an entertaining edition to the campus.
 Yale’s mascot is the beloved “Handsome Dan”. This college is the first to have a live mascot as the first “Handsome Dan” was used in 1800. There have been a total of 16 bulldogs used as the mascot in the college’s history. The beginning of this bulldog’s legacy began when an Englishman of Yale named Andrew Graves decided to purchase Dan from a blacksmith shop for $65. After that, Dan followed Graves everywhere, even to sporting events. Students adapted to the bulldog and claimed “Handsome Dan” as their mascot. At that time they didn’t have one.
 Dating back to 1921, at Fresno State, a white bulldog ran onto campus and began to take favor to the student body president. At that point, the bulldog became their mascot. Butler’s mascot, named Shimmy, wondered into a Collegian office one day and the idea of a bulldog mascot began. From these stories you can see how a dog for a mascot kind of fell into place. No one expected a bulldog to be such an inspiration to the student body.
.jpg) The University of Washington uses a Husky, named Harry. The university used actual sled dogs in 1922 as mascots, but due to the breed’s size, a costume Husky had to take its place in later years.
 The Boston Terrier became the Boston University mascot on November 15, 1922. The mascot was later named "Rhett" after a character from the novel Gone With the Wind.
 Southern Illinois University fashions the Saluki as their mascot. The Saluki is a royal dog of Egypt and this ties nicely into Southern Illinois as their nickname has been “Little Egypt” for the past 200 years.
.jpg) If landing into the role isn’t good enough you can always pick your mascot as Frank Seiler did for University of Georgia. “Uga” is his name and he is present at every UGA football game. There have been a total of seven dogs to hold the role of Uga. The dog is so important and popular that Uga has his own student identification card. Not to mention the jersey that Uga wears is the exact same fabric the players wear.
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