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Irvine: Traditions

Charter students at Irvine established their first tradition soon after the opening of the campus in fall, 1965, by spontaneously adopting the yell "ZOT" each time the highly successful water polo team of that first intercollegiate season made a goal. The yell was attributed to the anteater in the popular newspaper cartoon strip "B.C.," whose tongue made such a sound when impacting its prey. The student body later in the quarter officially adopted Anteaters as the campus mascot by a 56 per cent majority vote over other entries such as Bison, Roadrunners, Seahawks, and Toros. The off-campus student newspaper Spectrum later noted that the creature depicted in the cartoon strip was actually an ant bear.

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