(PHOTO AND STORY: KHQ.COM)
Hidden deep on Gonzaga’s campus in the Rare Books Room is a secret history even the biggest Zag fans might not know.
Stephanie Plowman has been looking through documents, photos, and artifacts for over 24 years.
Stephanie says the bulldogs are one of her favorite topics.
”In 1921 the students decided to name themselves the bulldogs because they played tenaciously like bulldogs,” Plowman says.
”The first is teddy, he was actually a bull terrier not an actual bulldog,” she adds.
There's been Corky, Bullet, Chesty, and Michael Finnegan O'Shaughnessy.
The number of bulldogs can be a blur, except when you get to Salty- who in 1966 supposedly bit a referee after he didn’t like a call against the Zags.
Q was the last living mascot to walk the Kennel floor. He was donated in 1999 after the Gonzaga Men's Basketball team made it to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament.
Spike is the mascot now...a student wearing a Bulldog costume.
“Spike is an ambassador for Gonzaga.”
Plough says a person is “more interactive and can meet with people and kids.”
On two legs or four, the stories of the Bulldogs will live on.