BLAST FROM THE PAST

The more things change, the more they stay the same. UH students through the decades embody the Cougar spirit.

2009

Students flash the iconic Cougar hand sign at a game in Robertson Stadium, which hosted its last football game in November 2012. It was razed and replaced by TDECU Stadium, which opened in 2014.

1979

Lynn Eusan Park covers 4.6 tree-filled acres in the center of campus and has become the gathering spot for diverse groups, just as its namesake would have surely enjoyed. Lynn Eusan was the first African American homecoming queen at UH, making her the first at a predominantly white university in the South. The park was dedicated in her name in 1976, following her death.

2004

Between 1989 and 2012, Shasta existed only as a costumed mascot. Here, the Shasta mascot sits on one of the two bronze cougar statues flanking the front of the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building, UH’s primary administrative building.

1989

A Cougar Guard member stands behind the ferocious Shasta V—the last female cougar of the original continuous line who served as UH’s live mascots. Since then, the tradition has been reimagined at the Houston Zoo. Two reflection pools now mark Shasta’s former on-campus den.