Why did Rice University choose the Owl as their mascot and What is some history behind that?
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The owl is from the Owls of Athena, included on the university's seal. See the link in Source.
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The San Francisco Giants.  The "crazy crab", with 8 dangling legs was the "anti mascot" as soon as he (or she - no one knew)\nmade its initial appearance.  The Giants soon discontinued the crab.  Very few fans were sad with this decision.  Not many thought a crab could be fun and cuddly.  Most Giants fans are very pleased with the current mascot ...............\na seal by the name of ........  LOU SEAL.
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Mocs.\nChattanooga, on its official athletics site, makes it clear that its nickname of Mocs does not mean moccasin or mockingbird. The school's nickname was Moccasins until 1996, which was represented by Chief Moccanooga, an exaggerated Cherokee tribesman. The nickname was taken from Moccasin Bend, a sharp bend in the Tennessee River west of the city. During the 1960s and 1970s, a moccasin shoe (known as "The Shoe") was actually used as the school's mascot.\nIn 1996, due in large part to concerns over ethnic sensitivity, the Moccasins name was dropped, and the Mocs nickname adopted. The main athletics logo features the school's mascot, "Scrappy" (an anthropomorphized mockingbird), riding a train (a reference to Chattanooga's history as a major railroad hub and to the song "Chattanooga Choo Choo"). The mascot takes its name from former football coach A.C. "Scrappy" Moore. The Mocs basketball program has also always enjoyed the support of the Moc Maniac, who works the loudspeaker at home games and travels with the team to post-season tournaments.
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The elephant is part of the Coat of Arms of Coventry.\n\nHere is the explanation as to why:\n\nMary Dormer Harris, the local historian thought that the elephant had a religious symbolism. The ancient 'Bestiaries' works of unnatural History, treat animals as religious types, and it is from these works that many of the animals and birds in church architecture derive. \n\nThe elephant is seen, not only as a beast so strong that he can carry a tower - Coventry's castle - full of armed men, but also as a symbol of Christ's redemption of the human race. The animal, according to one of the 'Bestiary' stories, is supposed to sleep standing, leaning against a tree. Hunters sever the trunk, and he falls helpless to the ground, until a small elephant approaches and pulls him up with his trunk. \n\nThe elephant, then, is a dragon slayer and is associated with a tree. There is a now forgotten tradition of dragon-slaying in the neighbourhood - Coventry is said to be the birthplace of St George, who slew the dragon. \n\nIn the medieval mind, the elephant suggested the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and did not merely symbolise strength.
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Okay...each school in my town has it's own mascot, so I'm going to list them all.\nVista School-Unicorn\nCornell Elementary-Coyote\nMarin Elementary-Dolphin\nOcean View Elementary-Otter\nMiddle School-Cobra\nHigh School-Cougar\n(There is a lot of rivalry between the elementary schools, and everyone thinks that their school was the best. There was always talk of the mascots beating each other up.)
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It all started in 1947 when North Carolina State, led by coach Everett Case, celebrated its Southern Conference championship by cutting down the nets. Case decided to take the nets as a souvenir of his team's victory.\n\n"He wanted it to show as a sign of winning the championship," says Frank Weedon, senior associate athletics director at N.C. State and a historian of sorts.
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Finley's stunt was a continuation of a long-time use of the elephant as a symbol of the Athletics.  They started using it when, sometime in the 1910s, New York Giants manager John McGraw said the team was a white elephant for its owners.  A's manager/part-owner Connie Mack adopted a white elephant as their mascot as a defiant act.
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Owls are often seen as messengers in many cultures. Googling "animal messengers" or "animal symbolism" will provide thousands of links.\n\nGenerally speaking, owls are a symbol of secrets, of seeing through masks, keen sight into matters unknown, a link between the world of shadow and light, (Probably because they are most often seen at dusk and dawn, the transition time.) clairvoyance, magic, deception, omens and portents, and other such stuff. Basically, just about anything considered occult.
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I'd say the colors are more orange than gold.  I don't think anyone would mix up the Bengals and the Steelers, so I think it's a non-issue.  Plus, how many teams use red and white in their color pallete?  By my count, there's the New Jersey Devils, Calgary Flames, Ottawa Senators, and Carolina Hurricanes.  And, to the guy who has never seen a black duck, I do believe that Duck Hunt on the original Nintendo had a few black ducks on them.  I still am not drawing a link between the Pens and the Ducks, other than the fact that they both have birds with webbed feet as mascots.  However, in a back alley brawl, Iceberg would slaughter Wildwing easily.
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Virginia Tech - VT\n\nThe word "Hokies," which originated from the Old Hokie spirit yell, is often used interchangeably with "Fighting Gobblers" to refer to the sports team, fans, students, or alumni, although the former is the official usage. The word "Hokies" originated in the 1890s; see Hokies for more information. The mascot is the Hokie Bird, a turkey-like creature. Originally the teams were known as the "Fighting Gobblers" and the turkey motif was retained despite the name change.
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The Owl\n\nThere are approximately 135 species of Owl, seventeen which are found in North America.   Their secretive habits, quiet flight and various calls from whistles, screeches and hoots,  have made them objects of superstition and even fear in some parts of the world. Some native tribes see the owl as a symbol of death while other tribes believe they embody the mysteries of shamanism and sorcery.   \nIndividuals with this totem are private complex people and don't like others to know what they are really thinking. This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings especially in the area of personal relationships. \n\nOwls have many abilities which set them apart from all other birds. Their wings which are extremely soft and thick, allow them to fly silently as they can swoop down on unsuspecting prey.  They are able to slip in and out of places unnoticed and can  teach us how to do the same. \n\nTheir eyes are large and forward facing giving them a wise appearance.  They have a greater range of motion in their necks than any other animal with a spinal column. Owls turn their heads rather than their eyes, which are stationary.  Their night vision is so powerful that they can see prey when the light is the equivalent of a candle burning 2500 feet away! \n\nTheir powers of vision are matched by their almost otherworldly hearing abilities.  In studies done with owls that were placed in totally light free rooms, the owls were able to locate a mouse by sound alone. Those with this medicine are usually gifted with clairvoyant and clairaudient abilities.  Souls who are born with this totem have chosen a path which suggests a need to refine and perfect these gifts for the aid of others. They make excellent therapists, psychologists and counselors. \n\nActive at dawn and dusk owls are sometimes referred to as the night eagle, a messenger from the darkness and a guide through all the mysteries that it contains. It teaches us how to embrace our personal darkness without fear.  Owls are sometimes thought to come to those that are about to die.  This does not mean a physical death as much as it means the letting go of some part of yourself that is not serving you.  Owls with their spectral senses help guide us through the dark tunnels of fear, change and uncertainty to the brilliant  light shining at the other end.  If the owl appears in your life thank it for its willingness to guide you through its shadowy realm to the other side of promise and joy.
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Wikipedia seems to suggest that those Pennants date back from medieval times when armies would fly long tapered flags. The navy uses similar triangular flags to identify ships as well.\n\nI guess they just migrated from being for jousts to being for sporting events and since college has a lot of sports and people held up those pennants during sports games, they came to represent colleges.
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There'a actual mention of it on their website that I could find.\nBut it looks like a picture of a Bulldog to me.\nwww.eastonsd.com/athletics
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Alan Garner: The Owl Service
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There is no official mascot at Stanford University. The "Tree," which is a member of the Stanford Band, is representative of El Palo Alto, the Redwood tree which is the logo of the city of Palo Alto. Since Stanford University and Palo Alto are almost inextricably intertwined in interests and location, it is a natural outgrowth of this relationship. The tree still exists and stands by the railroad bridge beside San Francisquito Creek – it is the site where early explorers first camped when settling the area. \n\nhttp://gostanford.cstv.com/school-bio/stan-nickname-mascot.html
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Ten Things About Owls\n\n1. Owls belong to the Order Strigiformes.\nThe Order Strigiformes is further divided into two families, the barn owls (Family Tytonidae) and the typical owls (Family Strigidae). Owls are a diverse group of birds, with over 220 species of owls belonging to the Order Strigiformes.\n\n2. Owls are birds of prey.\nOwls feed on a wide variety of prey including mammals, other birds, insects, and reptiles. There are even some species of owls that live in Africa and Asia that feed on birds. Owls cannot chew their prey since, like all birds, they do not have teeth. Instead, they swallow small prey whole and must tear larger prey into smaller pieces before swallowing. They later regurgitate pellets of indigestible material such as bone, fur, and feathers.\n\n3. Most owls are nocturnal.\nMost owls are active at night. A few species (such as the pygmy owls) are active in the early morning or at dusk while some (such as the burrowing owl and the short-eared owl) are active during the day.\n\n4. Owls' eyes are fixed in their sockets.\nOwls are unable to move their eyes within their sockets to a great extent, which means they must turn their entire head to see in a different direction. Because owls have forward-facing eyes, they have well-developed binocular vision.\n\n5. Many species of owls have special flight feathers adapted for silent flight.\nOwls have developed special feather adaptations that enable them to minimize the sound made when flapping their wings. For instance, the leading edges of their primary feathers have a stiff fringes that reduces noise while the trailing edge of their primaries have soft fringes that helps to reduce turbulence. Downy feathers cover the surfaces of the wing to further reduce sound.\n\n6. Owls have long been a part of human folklore and legend.\nOwls are depicted in cave paintings in France that date back 15,000 to 20,000 years. Owls also are used in Egyptian hieroglyphics. They have held a variety of symbolic roles in culture and have represented misfortune, death, prosperity, and wisdom.\n\n7. The tufts of feathers atop some owl's heads, referred to as 'ear tufts' are for display only.\nOwls' ears are located on the facial disc behind the eyes and are concealed by feathers. Owls have an acute sense of hearing that helps them locate and capture prey. In some species, the ears are located asymmetrically on either side of the facial disc to enhance their ability to pinpoint the origin of the sounds they hear by sensing the minute difference in the time that sound reaches each ear.\n\n8. Owls have strong feet like raptors with two toes facing foreward and two toes facing back.\nThe structure of an owl's foot is referred to as zygodactyl, which means that tow of the toes face forward while two face backward. This arrangement enables the owls to capture and grasp prey with greater ease. Sometimes, the third toe can be rotated forward into a position occasionally used for perching.\n\n9. Owls have a long, hooked bill.\nIn many species, the bill is partly concealed by feathers so it appears smaller than it actually is. Owls use their sharp bill to tear their food.\n\n10. Owls create a variety of vocalizations.\nOwls create a wide variety of sounds or vocalisations. The familiar hoot is usually a territorial declaration, though not all species are able to hoot. Other sounds owls might make include screeches, hisses, and screams.
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The Bald Eagle is the national bird of the United States of America. Its national significance dates back to June 20, 1782, when the Continental Congress officially adopted the current design for the Great Seal of the United States including a bald eagle grasping arrows and an olive branch with its talons. Some states had earlier adopted the bird as a symbol; for example New York State did so in 1778.\n\nIn 1784, after the end of the Revolutionary War, Benjamin Franklin wrote a famous letter to his daughter from Paris criticizing the choice and suggesting the Wild Turkey as an alternative:\n\nFor my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him. \nWith all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . . \nI am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on. \nDespite Franklin's objections the Bald Eagle remained the emblem of the United States. Today it appears on many official seals in addition to the back of 25 cent coin.