The US Naval Academy's mascot is a goat named Bill, named after the billy goat.

The Navy's history with goats started when Navy vessels began bringing goats onboard their ships due to their functionality.

However, the reason the academy adopted a goat as its mascot is steeped in legend and entirely bizarre.

Every sports team needs their very own cartoony mascot to get the fans going. Sure, it's a goofy tradition, but it gets the people cheering and those cheers spur the players on to victory, so no one ever questions it. Military academies are no different.

Secretary of the Navy the Honorable Ray Mabus (center) speaks with a US Naval Academy Midshipman assigned to care for the school's mascots before the 111th annual Army-Navy football game at Lincoln Financial Field. US Navy Photo/Wikimedia Commons The Air Force Academy sports the high-flying falcon because it's the apex predator across much of America's sky. West Point is represented by the mule because it's a hardy beast of burden that has carried the Army's gear into many wars. The Naval Academy, in what seems like a lapse of logic, decided long ago that the best representation of the Navy and Marine Corps' spirit is a goat.

The use of a goat as their mascot began in 1893 with El Cid the Goat, named after the famed Castilian general. Eventually, they settled on the name "Bill" because, you know, billy goats... And it just gets weirder from there.