Published by
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
By Hopi Hoekstra This Harvard mammalogist is here to tell you: There’s a fair chance your college mascot isn’t what you think it is. Back in 1999, when I was a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, my then sports-fanatic boyfriend got us tickets to the NCAA tournament’s first-round games in Seattle. I hadn’t really followed college basketball; I’d never filled out a bracket or understood what the “madness” was all about. I’d grown up in more of an NFL house. So, I was just going for the experience, not rooting for any team in particular—which is probably why I became so enthralled wit…