Boo Hoo the Bear


Boo Hoo the Bear is the mascot of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Boo Hoo wears a vest and tam in the Royal Stewart tartan.

History

Originally, Boo Hoo was a real bear which was paraded around at football games and kept in the basement of Grant Hall. The first bear was a pet of Bill Hughes who brought him to Queen's when he was hired as a boxing trainer. The bear was popular enough to have music composed for it—Boo-Hoo's march for piano, Boo Hoo's Queen's Dominion Victory March and The Mascot: Boo Hoo's March to Queen's Rugby Team composed by Oscar Telgmann in Toronto in the 1920s.
This was the first of a succession of 5 bears who lived at the stadium until the 1950s. The story of each bear is still unknown, though no bear reached full size. The Queen's student government, the Alma Mater Society, was in charge of bears three and four.
The mascot was revived in its present form in the 1980s by the Queen's Bands Cheerleaders and is currently in his eighth incarnation, giving him the full title of "King Boo Hoo the eighth". He is seen often around the Queen's campus, at the Queen's Gaels football games, frosh week and homecoming, and has been on the cover of several issues of Golden Words.