What is the UCF mascot? A sneak peak into the university's athletic culture

The UCF Knights are one of the four newest programs to join the Big 12 this season.

Their mascot is Knightro, a knight in shining armor. There is a lot to his story so let's take a deeper dive into it.

What is Knightro, the UCF Knights mascot?

Knightro is the mascot for the UCF Knights for all of the university's sporting events. It was created by a student, Trey Gordon, in 1994. His fraternity brother Robert Morris ironically dubbed one of the drawings Knightro as a play on words, and the name stuck.

In 1996, a female version named "Glycerin" was created. She was retired two years later. In 2005, a group of senior engineering students at UCF created a motorized vehicle for Knightro and called it the Chariot II. He would use the vehicle for homecomings.

However, in 2019, he began using the Pegasus 1, a go-kart, to get around the many areas on campus.

How will the UCF Knights do in the Big 12 in 2023?

The UCF Knights has done well recently. They were adjudged co-champions, along with Alabama, for the 2017 season. They finished runner-up in the 2022 American Athletic Conference,

Unlike a lot of teams in the Big 12, they have the advantage of having their starting quarterback return to the program.

John Rhys Plumlee did a pretty solid job last season with a 69.8 QBR (scale of 1-100 with 50 being average). He will face some tougher defenses this year. But if he can stay in the 65-70 QBR range, the Knights will be in a great position to be successful.