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.
Sparky the Sun Devil
Sparky the Sun Devil is the official mascot of Arizona State University. Originally the ASU athletic teams' mascot was an owl, then became a "Normal" (because ASU was founded as a normal school). It was later changed to a bulldog in an attempt to make the school – Arizona State Teacher's College at the time – appear more in line with Yale and other universities that held a higher level of respect. The "State Press", the student newspaper, ran frequent appeals during the fall of 1946, urging the Bulldog to be replaced by the new Sun Devil. On November 8, 1946, the student body voted 819 to 196 to make the change. On November 20, as reported by the "Arizona Republic", the student council made it official. The following day, the first Arizona State team played as the Sun Devils. Two years later, alumnus and Disney illustrator Berk Anthony designed "Sparky", a devil holding a trident (colloquially referred to as a pitchfork). Anthony is rumored to have based Sparky's facial features on that of his former boss, Walt Disney. Sparky is officially known as a "mischievous imp", with no other backstory than that.