Charlie Cardinal is the mascot of

Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State or BSU) is a public research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. The university has three off-campus centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Fishers, Indiana. The university is composed of seven aca ...

Muncie, Indiana Muncie ( ) is a city in Delaware County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It is located in East Central Indiana about northeast of Indianapolis. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 65,195, down from 70,085 in the 2010 c ...

. He is an anthropomorphic

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

. Ball State's athletics teams have been known as the Cardinals since 1927. Originally nicknamed the "Hoosieroons," discontent led to a school newspaper-sponsored contest to find a new nickname. When no acceptable choices came, a committee was formed, and it was a member of this committee, Professor Paul Billy Williams, who came up with the new nickname of Cardinals. He came up with it while talking to Coach Norman G. Wann, another committee member, about how the logo of his favorite team, the

Saint Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

, looked distinctive on the jersey of

Rogers Hornsby Rogers Hornsby (April 27, 1896 – January 5, 1963), nicknamed "the Rajah", was an American baseball infielder, manager (baseball), manager, and coach (baseball), coach who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the St. ...

. Actor and mime Doug Jones portrayed Charlie when he attended Ball State in the early 1980s.

Former University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee mascot

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Cardinals (now the Panthers) had a "Charlie Cardinal" mascot in the 1956-1964 period. Two characters in the Milwaukee-based

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

Happy Days ''Happy Days'' is an American television sitcom that aired first-run on the American Broadcasting Company, ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marsha ...

'' appeared in one episode in their Charlie Cardinal outfits.

References

BallStateSports.com
Mid-American Conference mascots Ball State University Bird mascots Fictional cardinals (birds) Anthropomorphic birds Mascots introduced in 1927 {{mascot-stub