Gunrock is the official mascot of the UC Davis Aggies

UC Davis Aggies

The UC Davis Aggies compete in NCAA Division I sports in the Big West Conference. For football, the Aggies compete in Division I FCS , and are members of the Great West Conference, granting UC Davis the distinction of being one of only three UC campuses to field a football team...

. He is named after Gun Rock, who was born in 1914 and was the offspring of English Triple Crown winner Rock Sand

Rock Sand

Rock Sand was a brown Thoroughbred race horse who was a very good young galloper, winning six of his seven starts. Always showing great courage he won the 2,000 Guineas Stakes, St. Leger Stakes and Epsom Derby which earned him the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.He was a beautifully conformed...

 and race mare Gunfire. His bloodlines are similar to those of the legendary racehorse Man O' War

Man O' War (horse)

Man o' War, is considered one of the greatest Thoroughbred racehorses of all time. During his career just after World War I, he won 20 of 21 races and $249,465 in purses....

. In 1921, he was brought by the U.S. Army Cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 to the campus of University of California, Davis

University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...

, which was breeding

Selective breeding

Selective breeding is the process of breeding plants and animals for particular genetic traits. Typically, strains that are selectively bred are domesticated, and the breeding is sometimes done by a professional breeder. Bred animals are known as breeds, while bred plants are known as varieties,...

 horses for the Cavalry at the time. In 1924, he was adopted as the official 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 men's basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 team and accompanied the team to games and rallies. Later, a traditional mascot was created and named Gunrock by the students. That mascot persisted into the 1970s, when he was replaced by Ollie the Mustang. Ollie did not last long, as a period of confusion about the school's mascot and nickname set in, lasting into the first decade

Decade

A decade is a period of 10 years. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek dekas which means ten. This etymology is sometime confused with the Latin decas and dies , which is not correct....

of the 21st century. In 2003, after the school's official mascot was officially identified as the mustang, the name Gunrock returned.