Ralphie captures 2023 Mascot Hall of Fame Award

Colorado’s live buffalo mascot Ralphie and her (yes, every Ralphie has been a female) handlers took home the 2023 Mascot Hall of Fame’s ‘Best College Live Animal Program’ award on Tuesday. Per the Mascot Hall of Fame’s website, the award is presented annually to the NCAA or NAIA live animal program that “best embodies its university or school and positively enhances the institutions mission.” Via public vote, Ralphie and company beat out four other live animal programs – Yale University’s ‘Handsome Dan XIX’, UCONN’s ‘Jonathan the Husky’, Louisiana Tech’s ‘Tech XXII’ and the University of Georgia’s ‘UGA XI’ – to win the award.

The tradition of Ralphie and her handlers leading the Colorado Buffaloes football team onto Folsom Field has been around since September 16, 1967. Colorado is currently on their sixth version their live mascot after Ralphie V, nicknamed ‘Blackout,’ retired following the 2019 season after 12 years serving the University. Ralphie VI, nicknamed ‘Ember’ because of a fan vote, made her debut against Northern Colorado on September 3, 2021.

Shortly after accepting the head coach position at Colorado last December, Deion Sanders made headlines when he admitted in a Well Off Media video that he was scared of Ralphie. “What I’m proposing is, Ralphie and I need to meet, before we meet” Sanders said. “I don’t want out first meeting to be ta-dah, because we’re going to pack that thing [Folsom Field] like sardines.” Coach Prime and Ralphie VI finally met this past April, a meeting that was documented by CU Video.