The Oregon Duck mascot does push-ups when UO scores a touchdown. Last week, Oregon scored 81 points, causing the Oregon Duck to do 546 push-ups during the game. The USC Trojans have their own mascot workout, but in this case, it’s a real animal doing the work, not a human in a mascot outfit.
Traveler, the beloved Trojan horse who gallops around the Coliseum field after USC touchdowns at home games, had a very, very busy first half on Saturday.
USC scored three touchdowns in the first quarter, then two more touchdowns in the first five minutes of the second quarter, then a third touchdown with 6:46 left before halftime. That’s six Traveler touchdown gallops in a quarter and a half.
That’s a lot of work, far more than what the beautiful animal normally expects to do.
Cooler, calmer, wiser heads prevailed. It wasn’t necessary to run the horse into the ground. This isn’t horse racing. The USC staff very thoughtfully did not insist on running Traveler around the Coliseum after USC’s seventh first-half touchdown.
Like Caleb Williams, this workhorse got a rest.
Here’s how all of this went down, with reactions and video included: