Osceola and Renegade
The Osceola and Renegade mascots were conceived by Bill Durham, a Tallahassee businessman and Florida State alumnus. He came up with the concept of a horseback-riding Seminole mascot as early as 1962, when he was voted into the school's homecoming court. He returned to the idea in 1977, and won the support of Ann Bowden, wife of head football coach Bobby Bowden, who helped make the idea a reality. Durham contacted the Seminole Tribe of Florida about the project, and chairman Howard Tommie had tribe members make the first costume for Osceola. Durham provided the horse, while Bowden helped acquire the various permits necessary to allow a horse onto the field.
Eugene McCaslin
McCaslin accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida, where he played for coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football team from 1996 to 1999. As a freshman in 1996, he was a member of the Gators team that defeated the Florida State Seminoles 52–20 in the Sugar Bowl to win the Bowl Alliance national championship. Used mostly as a blocking back, he had two games where he rushed for 100 yards or more during the first three seasons of his college career. Prior to his senior season in 1999, he switched to defense and became a starting linebacker.