Boll Weevils

One of the most frequently asked questions about UAM athletics concerns our mascot. The Boll Weevil is one of the most unusual mascots in college athletics and the subject of much confusion (mostly among Yankees). The Boll Weevil is a small gray insect that can wipe out a cotton crop in the blink of an eye. When UAM was founded in 1909, cotton was still king in Arkansas and the Boll Weevil was the most dreaded pest in the South. UAM’s early students, most of them the sons and daughters of delta cotton planters, selected the Boll Weevil as their mascot in admiration of its toughness and the fear it caused among farmers. It’s been said that the Boll Weevil is the only thing tough enough to ever truly lick the South.