by R.J. Marse
LSU Sports Information
On Oct. 10, 1936, former LSU athletic trainer Mike Chambers, financed by a 25-cent-per-student donation, purchased a baby Bengal tiger named Sheik from the Little Rock Zoo. Eleven days later, Sheik became the first live mascot of LSU.
Later named “Mike” in honor of Chambers, the mascot died in 1956 and left the University with a choice — pursue the purchase of another live mascot or let the 20-year reign of Mike I be an interesting footnote in the University timeline.
LSU didn’t have to make the choice; Louisiana made it for them. A few days after the death of Mike I, the state legislature passed a resolution endorsing the purchase of a new tiger, again funded in part by LSU students. Fifty-two years and four Mikes later, the tradition endures.
On Aug. 25, Mike VI arrived at his multimillion-dollar habitat as the latest in the line of live carnivore kings ruling over the campus of LSU and the hearts of fans throughout Louisiana and beyond.
The man responsible for bringing Mike VI to LSU, Dr. David Baker, is also in charge of caring for the tiger and making sure he lives a long, happy life on campus with plenty of SEC and national championships to his name.
Baker is the attending veterinarian for LSU and, more specifically, the personal veterinarian for the live tiger mascot, currently Mike VI. He wastes no time asserting his awareness of the fanfare surrounding his job.
“I know what the tiger means to LSU. I figured that out,” says Baker.
“What it means to me is that there is no room for mistakes. The mascot program at this university has to be cared for in an excellent manner. It’s a challenge, but I enjoy that.”
Baker has been at LSU since 1995 and became Mike the Tiger’s personal veterinarian in 1996, during the reign of Mike V. When asked to compare Mike VI to his predecessor, Baker points out that they are very similar in personality, describing both as “playful” and “inquisitive.”
The difference is clear, all you need to do is look. Mike V weighed 370 pounds at his peak and around 300 pounds when he passed away on May 18, 2007. Mike VI already weighs more than 400 pounds and is expected to get bigger — much bigger.
“I don’t know how big he’ll be, but I think it will be somewhere between 600 and 800 pounds,” says Baker.
“Six hundred [pounds] for sure, probably more.”
Mike’s weight gain is enough to make Dr. Atkins, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers all offer their services. He puts on almost eight pounds per week.
While Baker and his staff see nothing out of the ordinary in the diet of Mike, the untrained ear can’t help but point out one extraordinary detail.
“He eats usually 10-15 pounds of food a day.”
It sounds like a lot, but he is, after all, a 400-pound tiger. That seems about right. Do tiger stripes cover stretch marks?
“We fast him the night before game day and then after the game, when he gets back into his enclosure, we give him a pig carcass.”
This isn’t your parrain’s cochon-de-lait, either.
It’s sometimes easy to forget that the animal LSU fans love to adore is a carnivorous predator, but that fact is never lost on Baker. With the exception of medical procedures, no one ever interacts with Mike one-on-one without a barrier for protection.
So how is Mike VI doing in his new home? According to Baker, the tiger’s health and temperament are just as easy to see for you and me as it is for a certified clinician.
“Have you seen him?” he says.
“Have you seen him playing in his pool and sleeping in his bushes? …What the normal person sees as Mike enjoying himself is just that. He enjoys it here.”
Baker and two students at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine are medically in charge of caring for Mike and, from an observer’s point of view, it’s similar to caring for a pet. In this case, a pet that weighs hundreds of pounds and whose health and well-being affect the attitude of thousands of LSU fans across the country. However, the job of Baker and his team isn’t like that of your hometown veterinarian.
“Our job is to keep animals healthy and make sure things don’t happen. That’s exactly what we’re doing with Mike the Tiger,” he says.
The difference lies in the type of veterinary medicine Baker and his team practice as opposed to the small town veterinarian. Baker is a laboratory animal veterinarian — a specialist in keeping animals healthy, not treating them once they are sick or injured.
“With (Mike VI) we never want to be in a position where we are responding to problems. That’s what a practitioner does — when a person brings in their sick animal, you respond. This is all about preventive care. Keeping an animal for 15-20 years and preventing illness. It’s a different kind of medicine, but it’s something laboratory animal veterinarians practice and specialize in.”
Baker’s job of caring for Mike comes with one particularly interesting responsibility: to prepare him to be taken in front of over 92,000 screaming fans seven or eight times per year. With the arrival of Mike VI, Baker had to start the preparation from scratch.
Baker and his staff began by loading Mike into the trailer fans see him in during games for 10 minutes at a time. They then increased that time incrementally until he became comfortable staying in the stationary trailer for about an hour. Then they brought him into the stadium.
“We took him in one morning, 7:45 or so, and parked in the corner where he stays during the game and we just let him sit there for about 45 minutes and then we drove a lap around the stadium. He did really well,” says Baker.
To get Mike accustomed to the noise in Tiger Stadium, Baker and his staff asked the athletic department to play the same music they play during game at full volume in order to judge Mike’s reaction.
According to Baker, he did well with that, too.
All that was left was too find the right game.
A 28-24 comeback victory against Heisman hopeful Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators marked Mike VI’s first game in Tiger Stadium. His record as mascot for the football team: 3-0.
A California native, Baker offers a unique perspective on what most LSU fans consider to be, well, perfectly normal.
“This would never happen anywhere but the South,” says Baker. “It would be absolutely impossible for any university anywhere else in the country to have a live carnivore on its campus. It’s just not going to happen.”
In fact, Baker says that while in California, he didn’t even know LSU had a live tiger on its campus. He didn’t know what LSU’s mascot was at all. That doesn’t sway him from feeling passionately about his work at LSU.
“I love my job. In some small way it’s like being the coach of an athletic team at a university. When things are going well it’s great, but when there are problems it can be real stressful.”
Stressful or not, Baker is most definitely qualified for the job. His official title covers a quarter of the alphabet: “Dr. David Baker, B.S., M.S., D.V.M., PhD.”
The title speaks for itself, but it’s Baker’s confidence and efficiency that can help fans rest easy when it comes to Mike VI. He is truly in good hands.