Columbia Lion

Athletics Lion Logo

The Columbia Lion is the university mascot, adopted in 1910. The idea was originally suggested by George Brokaw (CC 1909). ^[1] However, the Lion motif had been around campus from before, appearing on the roofs of Low Library and other buildings.

In 1928, the Columbia mascot took on a more visible position as the logo for Goldwyn Pictures Corporation, and subsequently MGM after the studio's merger. MGM's lion, "Leo", was the creation of Howard Dietz (CC 1917, J '?), who created it for Goldwyn Pictures while working for the Philip Goodman Advertising Agency^[2]. It is said that he was inspired by Columbia's fight song, "Roar, Lion, Roar".

Other appearances of the lion around campus include "The Scholar's Lion," a sculpture outside Havemeyer facing the Business School which was gifted to the university in 2004, and the "Teaching Lion" in Butler Library. A sculpture of the Columbia Lion stands outside Chrystie Field House at Baker Field, a gift of the class of 1899 presented in 1924.

The Lion Mascot

On October 15, 2005 Columbia debuted its revamped college mascot, Roar-ee. Roar-ee beat out other would-be mascots, Hamilton, Hudson, K.C.and J.J..

Roar-ee
Roar-ee's unnamed predecessor who bears a suspicious resemblance to Disney's character The Beast.

The Lion Logo

Like any school logo, the Columbia's lion logo has had many forms. The most recent form was adopted in 2000, replacing a logo that had earned the derogatory nickname "lettucehead."^[3] The logo featured a front profile of a lion with paw extended, and appeared either with or without the New York City skyline in the background.

In 2005, as part of a re-branding effort by new AD M. Diane Murphy that also the introduction of Roar-ee, the logo's colors were lightened, and the skyline and lion's tail were dropped.^[4] The following year the entire body was scrapped, leaving only the lion's roaring head under the school's name. However, the bookstore uses all iterations of the logo indiscriminately on merchandise and apparel (as it also does with the Columbia Crown).