Citronaut

The Citronaut was the first mascot of Florida Technological University (FTU), which later became the University of Central Florida (UCF). The mascot appeared on the first student handbook in 1968–1969.[2][3] After one year, students petitioned the university's student government to establish a new mascot for the university. In 1970, students approved "Knights of the Pegasus" as the second official university mascot, which remains to this day (albeit after being simplified to "Knights").[1]

Citronaut
UniversityUCF
ConferenceBig 12 Conference
First seenFall 1968 (1968)
Related mascot(s)Knightro, Glycerin (retired)[1]

History

The Citronaut was designed by Norman Van Meter, the brother-in-law of FTU's then-president Charles N. Millican in an attempt to combine the two major themes of Central Florida at the time: the citrus industry, and the space program. Florida produces approximately 100 million boxes of citrus annually,[4] and FTU was founded in 1963 to provide personnel to support NASA at the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. As the academic scope of the university broadened, it was renamed the University of Central Florida in 1978.[5][6]

The Citronaut was largely dormant until The UCF Baseball team developed a retro uniform in 2014 that featured the Citronaut which started a powerful renaissance of the original mascot. As of 2022, “Naut” an abbreviation of Citronaut has been promoted by the UCF Athletics social media department and numerous officially licensed Citronaut and “Naut” clothing and merchandise items have become available for sale to the public.

Modern appearances
Modern Citronaut costume

Since 2014, the Citronaut has experienced a renaissance in university publications, athletics programing, and merchandise.[7][8][9]

  • May 10, 2014 – UCF Baseball proclaimed Citronaut Day[7]
  • September 19, 2015 – UCF Men's Soccer played in fauxback Citronaut uniforms[8]
  • Spring 2016 – Knights in Space[9]
  • November 2018 – Citronaut appears on uniforms of the UCF football team against Temple in the themed Space Game.[10]
  • November 2019 – Citronaut appears on uniforms of the UCF football team against Houston Cougars in the themed Space Game that took off at noon on Saturday, November 2, 2019.
  • April 2022 - Citronaut appears on UCF softball uniforms in a game against Virginia Tech.
  • March 4, 2023 - Citronaut appears on themed UCF baseball uniforms in a game against Georgia Southern.

References
  1. Knightro is born. UCF Athletic Association. Archived 2007-10-27 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "UCF Receives Knighthood". UCF Athletics.
  3. One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for UCF. Pegasus
  4. Perez, Marvin (24 March 2015). "Orange Juice Enters Bull Market With Biggest Rally Since '98". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  5. "Facts About UCF – 2000–2001". University of Central Florida. Archived from the original on May 31, 2010. Retrieved July 14, 2009.
  6. "UCF Enrollment Projections 2012–17". University of Central Florida. Archived from the original on December 12, 2005. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  7. "Knights Baseball Team Welcomes Back the Citronaut | University of Central Florida News". University of Central Florida News | UCF Today. May 5, 2014.
  8. "Citronauts on Top". UCF Athletics.
  9. "Knights In Space". Pegasus Magazine.
  10. "A Familiar Flight by UCF Knights". Exposure.
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