Starbucks Iowa State University mug: Discovery Series
Campus Collection mug for Iowa State University in Ames: Cy the Cardinal, the Lake LaVerne swans Lancelot and Elaine, a 'Hilton Magic' sign, a stadium, a tornado for the Cyclones, ISU flags, corn, wind turbines and a line of the ISU Fights song.
- Series
- Discovery Series
- Place
- Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa, USA)
- Type
- Mug
- Released
- Not confirmed
- Capacity
- 14 fl ozStarbucks's Discovery Series launch story calls it the 14-ounce ceramic mug
- SKU
- Not confirmed
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The Iowa State swan who chased a lawn mower
On 25 July 2002, a mute swan named Lancelot chased a university lawn mower across the Iowa State campus in Ames, and the wheel rolled over his toes [2]. Four days later a team of veterinary faculty and students set his broken leg with a pin and a bone screw [2]. His therapy was swimming in a whirlpool tub, and his caretakers said he had a wonderful disposition [2]. The lake was harder. "When he got tired of swimming, he crawled up on the ice and just sat," Cathy Brown of facilities planning and management said the next March [3]. He still limped, and passersby thought he was in distress [3]. An alumnus from Webster City took in the old pair, both of them male, and gave Lake LaVerne two young swans [3]. Both were female. They inherited the traditional names, Lancelot and Elaine, anyway [3]. The first pair to carry them arrived in 1935, released onto the lake from a swan-shaped float during the Veishea spring celebration [2] [3]. The two white swans gliding across the top of the green circle (4) carry those names, whichever birds hold them.
The mug does not label its drawings, so connecting this one to the story is our reading.
What's on the mug
- 1IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
The words IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY in yellow capitals on two lines, set on a large green circle in the middle of the Front view. The last letters run past the circle onto the white glaze.
- 2Tower that looks like the Campanile
A small white tower with a red flared roof band, a green round dial like a clock face and a pale embossed spire on top, left of the microscope. It looks like the Campanile on central campus, which has clock faces and a pointed roof, though the drawing is white where the real tower is brick. The mug doesn't name it.[4]
- 3Microscope and light bulb
A red microscope tilted over the green circle, with a small yellow hand-like shape at the top of its arm, and up to its left a gold light bulb filled with a looped, lattice-like pattern and giving off short rays. Both are general symbols of science and ideas; the drawing does not tie them to one building or lab.
- 4Lancelot and Elaine, the Lake LaVerne swans
Two white swans in raised glaze along the top of the green circle, one gliding and one with wings spread, with orange-red bills and red feet. Iowa State has kept a pair of mute swans on Lake LaVerne since 1935, by tradition named Lancelot and Elaine. The mug doesn't name them.[2][3]
- 5Bell that may be the Victory Bell
A pale gold bell with a yellow yoke hanging between two red A-shaped stands, with yellow rays as if it is ringing. It may be Iowa State's Victory Bell, which is rung after home football wins in Ames, but the drawing does not show the real bell's mounting closely enough to be sure. The mug doesn't name it.[5][10]
- 6Twisted yellow-and-red column
A tall twisted shape at the left of the Front view: a yellow lattice top that spirals down in yellow and red bands into a red ring, with a yellow line running from the ring toward the bell. It continues round to the right edge of the Side photo. We cannot identify it.
- 7Arena that looks like Hilton Coliseum
A low building with a red roof band over rows of thin yellow columns and glass, with green shrubs in front and red cars on a yellow lot. Drawn under the 'Hilton Magic' sign, it looks like Hilton Coliseum, the Cyclones' basketball arena, but the building itself carries no name.[6]
- 8Hilton Magic
Fans stand on the arena roof: one in a wheelchair in a red-and-yellow striped shirt with both arms raised, and one holding up a small sign printed 'Hilton Magic'. Hilton Magic is the name given to the home crowd's effect at Hilton Coliseum. A further sign is cut off by the edge of the photo near the handle.[6]
- 9Cy the Cardinal Side view
A red cardinal with a yellow beak, an angry brow and yellow-tipped feet, wearing a red sweater with the yellow I-STATE logo, marked TM. This is Cy, the mascot of Iowa State's teams. The same figure is seen in the Back photo, fists clenched beside the stadium.[1]
- 10Stadium that looks like Jack Trice Stadium Side view
A football stadium seen from above, a bowl of red dotted seats around a pale field, with a yellow-striped football flying out of it trailing yellow lines. It looks like Jack Trice Stadium in Ames, home field of the Iowa State Cyclones, though the drawing is too stylised to confirm. The mug doesn't name it.[7]
- 11I S U flags Side view
Three red flags printed with the yellow letters I, S and U, each waved by a small figure standing on a gateway with a red bar that spans a road with red cars. The pillars carry a small I-State logo.
- 12Tornado, probably for the Cyclones Side view
A red funnel cloud edged in yellow, twisting down to a point above the U flag. It probably stands for the team name Cyclones, which goes back to a Chicago Tribune headline, 'Struck by a Cyclone', after a win at Northwestern, in a year when tornadoes were called cyclones. The mug doesn't explain it.[9][10]
- 13YES, WE WILL FIGHT WITH MIGHT FOR IOWA STATE! Back view
A red-and-yellow striped megaphone sends out the printed words 'YES, WE WILL FIGHT WITH MIGHT FOR IOWA STATE!' in red, grey and yellow. The words are a line from ISU Fights, Iowa State's official fight song.[8]
- 14Wind turbines Back view
Two white three-bladed wind turbines with motion lines, standing in a field under small yellow, red and grey clouds. They are not tied to a named wind farm.
- 15Ears of corn Back view
Two ears of yellow corn with dotted kernels and red husks, with a pat of butter melting on the top ear, lying in front of a grey-green field.
- 16STARBUCKS Back view
The word STARBUCKS printed vertically in black capitals beside the handle, seen in the Back photo.
The photos show the outside wrap from three angles (handle on the right in the Front photo, hidden behind the mug in the Side photo, on the left in the Back photo); the strip of the drawing at the handle's root is partly hidden by the handle. The base and bottom stamp are not shown, and only the Side photo shows the inside, which is glazed yellow.
Collector notes
- This is the Iowa State University campus mug, not the state mug: the printed words read IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY and the art is about the campus and its teams. The catalog lists separate state mugs, discovery-series-iowa and been-there-iowa.
- Cy the Cardinal and the stadium appear in both the Side and Back photos, so those two views overlap; together with the Front photo they cover the wrap except the narrow strip at the handle.
- The box under the mug reads STARBUCKS DISCOVERY SERIES CAMPUS COLLECTION. The photos do not show the base, so they do not settle what is printed underneath.
Before you buy
The photos show the outside wrap from three sides and a yellow inside, but not the base or its stamp. This is the Campus Collection mug for the university, with IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY on a green circle; the state of Iowa has its own Discovery Series and Been There mugs, with different art.
About the Discovery Series
Sources
- Cy the Cardinal (Wikipedia)
- ISU swan recuperating from surgery on broken leg (Iowa State University News Service)
- New swans for Lake LaVerne (Iowa State University News Service, 2003)
- Campanile (Iowa State University) (Wikipedia)
- Tom Gidley, ringing the Victory Bell, Homecoming, 1948 (Iowa Heritage Digital Collections, State Library of Iowa)
- Hilton Coliseum (Wikipedia)
- Jack Trice Stadium (Wikipedia)
- Iowa State Cyclones (Wikipedia)
- Iowa State Cyclones: the Cyclones name (Wikipedia)
- Five true facts about Iowa State football (Daily Herald, 23 October 2025)
