When Florida State football played its 2024 season debut in Dublin, Ireland, many fans were hoping they would still get to put on their pregame ritual.
Alas, Osceola and Renegade were not allowed across the Atlantic to take part in the festivities, thus robbing Irish college football fans of one of the best pregame ceremonies in the sport. The flaming spear planted amid the playing of the FSU War Chant is a staple among college football traditions and has been since it began in 1978.
The Seminoles don't only break out the tradition at Doak Campbell Stadium. The pair were at the Orange Bowl when FSU won its first national championship after the 1993 season and at the Rose Bowl for the BCS national championship game after the 2013 season. The ritual is so beloved that FSU fans were livid when the sound wouldn't play behind the pregame ceremony in the College Football 25 video game (don't worry, EA Sports eventually fixed the bug).
Florida State fans will get their first glimpse of Osceola and Renegade in the 2024 season Monday, September 2 when the Seminoles play Boston College in their home opener. Here's what to know about the two, including the Seminole Tribe's stance:
Osceola and Renegade: Who is the Florida State mascot?
Florida State football does not have a mascot. Osceola and Renegade are symbols that represent the tradition and culture of the Seminole Tribe, a Native American people whose ancestors lived in the Southeastern United States for centuries before European settlers came.
Osceola is a representation of a famed Seminole leader from the 1800s, and Renegade is his horse. They perform their pregame ritual only at FSU football games and select events such as the homecoming parade.
"FSU pays tribute to the resilience and courage of the Florida Seminoles when it refers to and represents the Seminole name and other symbols such as Osceola and Renegade," the Florida State website says. "The Florida Seminoles are our partners, not our mascots. The Seminole Tribe of Florida ensures that any display of its culture and symbols are consistent with both the Tribe’s and the university’s values. Seminoles design and create the authentic apparel worn by the FSU students portraying Osceola. These appearances adhere to the official wishes of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. As partners, we engage in continuous conversation regarding this symbolic representation."
For other FSU events, including basketball games, the school sends Cimarron, a costumed horse mascot that was revived in 2012.
What is the pregame tradition at Florida State football games?
Bill Durham, a FSU alumnus from the Class of 1965, is credited for creating the tradition of Osceola and Renegade. The pregame ritual began in 1978.
Holding a flaming spear, Osceola rides Renegade onto the field as the fans at Doak Campbell Stadium, along with the FSU Marching Chiefs band, perform the FSU War Chant. The two wait as the opposing team and then Florida State enters the field. After the pregame coin toss, Osceola brings Renegade on a run to midfield, bringing the horse to a rear and then throwing the flaming spear into the turf. Then it's game time.
How does the Seminole Tribe feel about FSU?
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a partner with Florida State. Unlike most sports teams that use Native American iconography, such as the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL and the Atlanta Braves of MLB, FSU has the express approval of the Seminole Tribe to use the name and symbols of their people.
Bill Durham worked with representatives of the Seminole Tribe to come up with the ritual and the regalia worn and used by Osceola and Renegade. He said in an interview with The (Bainbridge, Ga.) Post-Searchlight in May 2024 that after getting the green light from FSU coach Bobby Bowden, he talked with the tribe's chairman, Howard Tommie.
“I made him three promises,” Durham said. “That promise was: It will always be a young male that represents the spirit of Osceola, he would be a good student — from the get-go, they have to maintain a 3.0 grade point average, or they’re gone — and he would be of good character.”
In a behind-the-scenes video by the ACC Digital Network from 2013, the student who portrayed Osceola at the time said part of the makeup "changes me to a little bit darker tint" before the war stripes are painted on.
What kind of horse is Renegade?
Renegade is an Appaloosa, a horse known for its spotted coat. Bill Durham, the creator of the FSU ritual, said he chose the Appaloosa because "it is the only breed of horse that is really attributed to Native Americans." The Durham family has provided every horse that has depicted Renegade since 1978.
FSU is currently on Renegade VI, who has been in the role since 2014, and its 18th student depicting Osceola.
Who was Chief Osceola?
Osceola was born in 1804 in a Creek town in southwestern Alabama, near present-day Tallahassee. War with white people forced his tribe to move to northern Florida, and the various Native American groups who came together after settlement became to be known as the Seminoles.
Though he was never a traditional chief, Osceola became an outspoken advocate for Seminole rights and was seen as a leader of the tribe. He was a warrior in the Second Seminole War beginning in 1835, fighting to protect his people from further relocation.
The U.S. military imprisoned him in 1837 when he and other Seminole leaders were headed to St. Augustine to negotiate an end to the war, and he died in January 1838 because of a severe throat illness. Before he was buried, he was decapitated so his head could be studied as a "scientific curiosity."
