what is a bruin mascot

A Bruin mascot is a bear that represents various sports teams, including the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) athletic teams. The official mascot of UCLA is Joe Bruin, an anthropomorphic male brown bear, along with Josephine "Josie" Bruin, a female brown bear, who is his regular partner at UCLA sporting events and other university activities. The earliest known UCLA mascot was a furry stray dog, known as Rags, that a gardener found on the campus of the Normal School in fall 1917. While the university used different bear-related nicknames in the 1920s, it settled on "Bruins" in 1928 and began renting live bears as mascots in the 1930s. The animals would appear at all UCLA home football games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. This practice eventually stopped until students and alumni called for a new live mascot in the 1950s. A Himalayan bear cub from India nicknamed "Little Joe Bruin" was brought to Westwood before he grew too large and was transferred to a circus. A costumed mascot by the name of Joe Bruin was introduced in 1963. In 1967, the first female student to take the mascot role created Josephine "Josie" Bruin and joined Joe at athletic events.