Your weekend history lesson

UAB didn't always have a dragon named Blaze as its mascot. Its predecessors included a vicious Viking warrior, a pink dragon, and Beauregard the rooster, who was decidedly not intimidating.

Why and how an adult male chicken was to represent a team called the Blazers isn't exactly clear. Then again, to an outsider, the Alabama Crimson Tide's elephant and the Auburn Tigers' eagle wouldn't make much sense either. Nor would Middle Tennessee State's winged horse or Stanford's tree. Also uncertain is why Notre Dame, a school that shares a name with a French cathedral, would be urged to victory by a brawling leprechaun.

Maybe the rooster wasn't so bad after all.