Colonels Mascot

1948

Francis T. Nicholls Junior College of Louisiana State University established.

1950

Francis T. Nicholls Junior College fields a football team that calls itself the Buccaneers. Team lasts only one season.

1956

Francis T. Nicholls Junior College becomes Francis T. Nicholls State College. The students select red and gray as the school colors and, because ROTC is a part of the curriculum, and the highest rank a cadet can achieve is the rank of Cadet Colonel, the students select the Colonel as the mascot. Ms. Muriel Rogan of the library designs a cartoon character depicting a boy colonel dubbed “Colonel Nick.”

1957

Mrs. Rogan designs a little Colonel decal featuring “Colonel Nick” in a red and gray uniform with a sash at his waist. In the same year, Mrs. Rogan designs a uniform for a young boy, selected by the SGA, to wear while sitting on the bench with the Nicholls State College basketball team to bring the team luck. The uniform was not modeled after a Confederate uniform.

1957-1963

Boy colonel participates in activities in addition to sitting on the bench at basketball games: serves as the starter for the annual pirogue races, marches in parades with the Little Colonels, a female drill unit, and greets both home and visiting teams during their introductions at home basketball games.

1962

Jim Leonard, a professional artist, draws a colonel who was “comical yet dignified.” The SGA adopts this drawing as the official symbol of Nicholls spirit.

1970

Boy Colonel no longer appears at Nicholls State College events.

1980’s

Student starts wearing the Tillou costume at athletic events and pep rallies.

1998

Ricardo Wilson, an African American student elected president of the SGA, takes issue with the Colonel as mascot but changes his mind as a result of a discussion with Dr. Bonnie Bourg, retired charter member of the Nicholls State University faculty and Vice President of Student Affairs Emeritus.

2003

The student leader of the campus NAACP organization raised the concern that the appearance of the University’s mascot at selected athletic events was a disturbing reminder of the Confederate past.

2004

University President Stephen Hulbert issues the Colonel Mascot Resolution, retiring the 42-year-old Colonel caricature, know as Tillou, and the bearded mascot costume. The Colonel remained the official mascot designation for Nicholls, and the name “Tillou” was not retired.

2005

University undergoes a comprehensive branding initiative which results in new logos (large, red letter “N”) along with complementary typefaces and the fine-tuning of the University’s color scheme.

2006

SGA President Olinda Ricard vows to make the creation of a Colonel mascot a priority during her administration.

2008

Nicholls contracts Rickabaugh Graphics to create a new athletics visual identity program, including a new look for Colonel Tillou. As a result, SGA President Alex Barnes sends a letter of formal recommendations for a new mascot and related logos for Nicholls to university President Stephen Hulbert. The recommendations were accepted by Hulbert, finalizing the new designs.

2009

University announces new athletics logos, marks and mascot featuring Col. Tillou