In the early years of intercollegiate athletics, RPI teams were simply called the "Cherry and White." By 1921, the basketball team was referred to as the "Fighting Engineers" and gradually all teams were called the "Engineers." The name, however, was never personified into a mascot. The surveyor logo may have been an attempt to bring the name to life.

A white "trojan horse" graced the sidelines of RPI football games in the late 1940s.

In 1995, the Red Hawk was adopted as an official Rensselaer mascot. Athletic teams such as basketball, baseball, softball and soccer have adopted this as their team name. Other teams such as football, hockey and track & field have retained "Engineers" as their team name.

Puckman, the hockey mascot, appeared in 1982. The Swarm was also a mascot in the 1980s. The costumed characters first appeared at basketball games in 1983 and then later showed up at football and hockey games.

Alby, the albino squirrel, was an unofficial campus mascot. The first recorded sighting of the white squirrel was in 1995. Alby was most frequently sighted on the Hassan Quad. He was assumed dead by the fall of 2006.