George Tirebiter
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George Tirebiter was the unofficial mascot of the University of Southern California 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.
George became endeared to the student body when he attacked the California Golden Bears human mascot Oski at the 1947 USC/Cal football game.
The legacy of the Tirebiter mascots was replaced with Traveler, the white Arabian horse ridden by a Trojan rider at USC home football games.
In 2006, USC unveiled a statue celebrating the older 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 Philsophy and the Leventhal School of Accounting. George is facing Exposition Park and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum: the home stadium for USC Trojans football.
The Firesign Theatre had a character on one of their albums, Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, named George Tirebiter.
[edit] External links
- A Trojan Tail - 1998 Daily Trojan article about George Tirebiter
- Marking Time - 1999 Trojan Family Magazine article including a photo of George Tirebiter
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