George Tirebiter was the unofficial mascot

Mascot

The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...

 of the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 in the 1940s. When a stray dog was discovered by a group of USC students at Curry's Ice Cream parlor, one student remarked that the dog looked like a Navy V-12 student named George Kuhns. Thus, the dog was dubbed "George." He received the surname "Tirebiter" because he would bite at the tires of cars he chased down Trousdale Parkway, which bisects the campus. (Today Trousdale is only open to foot traffic.) His pastime ultimately led to his demise, as he was eventually run over and killed by a car in 1950. A public funeral was held on campus. The original George Tirebiter was succeeded by a handful of subsequent Tirebiters until 1957.

George became endeared to the student body when he bit the University of California Los Angeles mascot Joe Bruin

Joe Bruin

Joe Bruin is the official mascot of UCLA and is often found with Josephine Bruin, a female brown bear. He is a visible and constant on-field presence at UCLA sporting events.-History:The original mascot was represented by bear cubs....

 on the nose at a home football game.

The legacy of the Tirebiter mascots was replaced with Traveler

Traveler (mascot)

Traveler is a horse who is the mascot of the University of Southern California. He appears at all USC home football games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as well as many other outdoor events, including numerous Rose Parades. The current horse is Traveler VII...

, the white Andalusian horse

Andalusian horse

The Andalusian, also known as the Pure Spanish Horse or PRE , is a horse breed developed in the Iberian Peninsula. Its ancestors have been present on the Iberian Peninsula for thousands of years. The Andalusian has been recognized as an individual breed since the 15th century, and its conformation...

 ridden by a Trojan rider at USC home football games.

Statue

In 2006, USC unveiled a statue celebrating the unofficial mascot's memory. The life-size statue portrays George with a small piece of chewed tire and is located at the south end of campus on Trousdale Parkway between the Mudd Hall of Philosophy and the Leventhal School of Accounting. George is facing Exposition Park and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is a large outdoor sports stadium in the University Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, at Exposition Park, that is home to the Pacific-12 Conference's University of Southern California Trojans football team...

: the home stadium for USC Trojans football.

The plaque on the statue reads:

Cultural references

The protagonist of the Firesign Theatre album Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers

Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers

Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers is The Firesign Theatre's third comedy recording for Columbia Records, released in 1970. In 1983, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide called it "the greatest comedy album ever made"....

was named George Leroy Tirebiter, after the dog, and that album's movie-within-a-play, "High School Madness," featured a boy named Porgy Tirebiter.

External links

• A Trojan Tail - 1998 Daily Trojan
  Daily Trojan
  The Daily Trojan, or "DT," is the student newspaper of the University of Southern California. The newspaper is a forum for student expression and is written, edited, and managed by university students. The paper is intended to inform USC students, faculty, and staff on the latest news and provide...
  
   article about George Tirebiter
• Marking Time - 1999 Trojan Family Magazine article including a photo of George Tirebiter
• When Tirebiter was the big mutt on campus - Los Angeles Times
  Los Angeles Times
  The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
  
  September 27, 2009 article about George Tirebiter

References: