Traveler (mascot)

Traveler
Traveler
	Traveler logo
University	University of Southern California
Conference	Big 10
First seen	1961

Last updated January 02, 2026

Traveler on the sidelines during a football game. Usctravelerandband.jpg — Traveler on the sidelines during a football game.

Traveler is a horse who is the mascot of the University of Southern California. Traveler appears at all USC home football games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as well as many other outdoor events, including numerous Rose Parades. The current horse is Traveler IX. Although the Traveler web site describes Traveler as "pure white," most of the horses who have served as Traveler are actually gray horses whose hair coats have become completely white. (Truly white horses are rare.) On November 4, 2012, the costumed version of Tommy and Traveler were introduced for men's and women's basketball games.^[1]

Introduction

Traveler was introduced in the autumn of 1961, during the USC Trojans football team's home opener at the Coliseum, against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. To dress Saukko as a Trojan warrior, USC used its connections to the film industry to procure the costume worn by Charlton Heston in Ben Hur two years earlier. The costume proved to be too heavy for extended use, so Saukko made his own leather uniform for the 1962 season and the same costume has been used since. The name was believed to have been inspired by the gray horse Traveller, ridden by Civil War Confederate general Robert E. Lee,^[2] In August 2017 concerns that the horse's name had a connection to Lee led to further research, which revealed that the first Traveler was acquired with his name, spelled with one L, in 1957 after he had become unreliable as a movie horse.^[3] On Equinespot.com, Traveler is listed as one of the six most common horse names to begin with the letter T. ^[4]

References

↑ Chris Foster, USC basketball has a new mascot ... named Traveler, Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2014
↑ "Origin of Traveler name". Los Angeles Times.
↑ Daily Trojan, , August 22, 2016
↑ Popular Horse named

External links

Traveler's official site at USC.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Chris Foster, USC basketball has a new mascot ... named Traveler, Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2014

[2] "Origin of Traveler name". Los Angeles Times.

[3] Daily Trojan, , August 22, 2016

[4] Popular Horse named

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

v t e USC Trojans football
Venues	Athletic Park (1895–1898) Fiesta Park (1897–1898, 1901–1902, 1904–1906, 1916) Chutes Park (1900) Prager Park (1903) Bovard Field (1904–1910, 1914–1915, 1917–1923) Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (1923–present) Jones Field/Kennedy Field (practice)
Bowls and rivalries	Bowl games California Notre Dame Stanford UCLA: Victory Bell
Culture and lore	Traveler George Tirebiter Giles Pellerin "Fight On" Spirit of Troy Student Body Right Tommy Trojan Tribute to Troy Athletics scandal 1967 "Game of the Century" "Bush Push" Carroll–Harbaugh rivalry 2007 Stanford game So This Is College
People	Head coaches Starting quarterbacks NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1888 1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911–1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
National championship seasons in bold

v t e USC Trojans men's basketball
Venues	Shrine Auditorium (1926–1949) Pan-Pacific Auditorium (1949–1959) Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (1959–2006) Galen Center (2006–present)
Rivalries	UCLA (Crosstown Cup)
Culture & lore	George Tirebiter "Fight On" Traveler Athletics scandal 2017–18 corruption scandal
People	Head coaches Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1906–07 1907–08 1908–09 1909–10 1910–11 1911–12 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25 2025–26
Helms national championship in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

v t e USC Trojans women's basketball
Venues	Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (1976–2006) Galen Center (2006–present)
Rivalries	UCLA Crosstown Cup
Culture & lore	History "Fight On" Traveler Full Court Press
People	Head coaches
Seasons	1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25 2025–26
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

v t e Live animal mascots in college sports
The American	TOM (Memphis) Stella (Temple)
ACC	Osceola and Renegade (Florida State) Tuffy (NC State) Rameses (North Carolina) Peruna (SMU)
Big 12	Judge (Baylor) Ralphie the Buffalo (Colorado) Shasta (Houston) Bullet (Oklahoma State) The Masked Rider (Texas Tech)
Big East	Butler Blue (Butler) Jack the Bulldog (Georgetown) Jonathan (UConn)
Big Ten	Traveler (USC) Dubs (Washington)
Conference USA	Tech (Louisiana Tech)
Ivy League	Handsome Dan (Yale)
Missouri Valley	Griff II (Drake) Racer One (Murray State)
Mountain West	Aurora (Air Force) CAM the Ram (Colorado State)
Patriot League	Army Mules (Army) Bill the Goat (Navy)
SEC	Tusk (Arkansas) War Eagle (Auburn) Uga (Georgia) Blue (Kentucky) Mike the Tiger (LSU) Bully (Mississippi State) Boomer and Sooner (Oklahoma) Sir Big Spur (South Carolina) Smokey (Tennessee) Bevo (Texas) Reveille (Texas A&M)

Traveler (mascot)

Contents

Introduction

See also

References

External links