16 Sweet Facts About the Sweet 16 Schools

A few conversation starters for TV timeouts:

1. Kentucky tweaked its Wildcat logo in 1994 after people complained the tongue looked like a penis.

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2. In 2012, University of Louisville Police arrested a man for stealing the book "Resolving Ethical Issues" and trying to sell it to the bookstore.

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3. Virginia's unofficial mascot is the wahoo—a saltwater game fish that can drink twice its own body weight, temporarily increasing its size to fend off enemies.

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4. Michigan State offers a course called Surviving the Coming Zombie Apocalypse: Catastrophes and Human Behavior.

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5. Stanford's nickname was the Indians until 1972. In a student vote on the new mascot, Robber Barons won, but the school refused to adopt that name.

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6. Notable Dayton alums include Super Bowl–winning coaches Chuck Noll and Jon Gruden, and the guy who invented ctrl-alt-delete (David Bradley).

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7. The University of Florida has pulled in well over $150 million in Gatorade royalties since the drink's invention.

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8. UCLA has had at least one competitor in every Summer Olympics since 1928. The school has earned 250 medals.

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9. Before becoming the Aztecs in 1925, San Diego State's teams were called the Professors and the Wampus Cats.

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10. Arizona's first mascot was a desert bobcat named Rufus Arizona.

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11. Michigan is the only school with an alumni association chapter on the moon.

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12. Tennessee earned its reputation for volunteerism in the War of 1812. Then during the Mexican War, Tennessee's governor put out a call for 2,800 men to help battle Santa Anna, but 30,000 volunteers showed up.

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13. UConn was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School. Until the 1930s, they were known as the Aggies.

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14. The Iowa State Cyclones' mascot is a cardinal because the school couldn't make a costume "that would remotely resemble a column of wind."

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15. Wisconsin is the Badger State because the area's lead miners spent winters in tunnels burrowed into hills. Like badgers.

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16. In a 1914 vote, Baylor students picked the Bears as their mascot, beating out Buffalo, Antelope, and Bookworms.