Fresno State's Fearsome Bulldog Mascot Is Street Gang Symbol

As an alumnus, I can attest to the enormous popularity of Fresno State's athletics program, especially its football team. With the exception of minor league baseball, there are no professional sports teams for hundreds of miles. Fresno State is the epicenter for popular athletic culture. And with such an aggressive mascot, it's no surprise that the bulldog has become a fearsome gang insignia.

At the New York Times, "Fresno State Loves Its Bulldogs, but So Does a Gang":

Fresno and the surrounding region have long been overrun by Bulldogs. And where the violent pack goes, trouble follows.

The Fresno State Bulldogs college football team is exceedingly popular here in the country’s fruit and vegetable epicenter, where more than a million acres of cropland stretch to the horizon. “From Sacramento to L.A., there is nothing except agriculture and Fresno State football,” said Kenny Wiggins, a former Fresno State lineman who plays in the N.F.L. for the San Diego Chargers. “We were the only show in town; everyone, and I mean everyone, goes to the games.”

The team’s logo is a cartoon bulldog, a muscled beast with sharp teeth, a spiked collar and floppy ears. But the bulldog is no longer just a college sports mascot. It has been appropriated by members of a savage street gang who call themselves the Bulldogs.

The gang started in a prison and quickly earned a reputation as unusually vicious, even in the bloody world of California gangs. At their height, in 2006, the Bulldogs were responsible for 70 percent of the city’s shootings, the police said. Three of four inmates in the county jail are Bulldogs.

“They grew and grew and grew until there were Bulldogs everywhere you looked,” Jerry Dyer, Fresno’s police chief, said.

The mascot now plays a double role as football icon and gang symbol. Confusing the two can have fatal consequences. In 2011, Stephen Maciel, a father of four who the police said had no gang affiliation, was shot and killed by a Bulldogs gang member in a liquor store parking lot. Maciel was wearing a red Fresno State shirt.

The gang’s embrace of the bulldog logo has put university administrators in an excruciatingly awkward position amid a gang crisis that has claimed hundreds of lives. The situation has vexed them, even as sales of Fresno State apparel and merchandise increased tenfold since the gang took hold in the city. The university has considered dropping the logo, and has approached law enforcement officials for guidance.

The issue is trickier than ever this season, with the football team 8-0 and ranked in the top 20 nationally. An adage here says the city’s cultural season starts with the first kickoff. And it is true: the Bulldogs are ascendant. Discussion of recent games is heard up and down the radio dial. Billboards feature the top players, including quarterback Derek Carr, a contender for the Heisman Trophy.

The police, meanwhile, have made cracking down on the Bulldogs gang a top priority, with some success. But the Bulldogs are still dangerous enough to have cost the lives of Maciel and others.

“If you love sports, you want to be all geared up in the team’s colors,” said Maciel’s widow, Marisol Aguirre. “But I don’t wear any of it anymore, and I don’t let my kids wear it. It’s too dangerous.”

Continue reading.

The slideshow is here, "Identifying With the Bulldogs."

RELATED: At the  Washington Post, "Wyoming hopes veteran defensive coordinator can help slow No. 17 Fresno State, Derek Carr."