It is widely believed (especially in
Western Massachusetts) that each of the
characters in the cartoon Scooby-Doo represents one of each of the
Five Colleges Consortium when the show was started. The theory goes like:
There are all sorts of crazy theories to back this up, many of which revolve around "scooby snacks" being either drugs themselves, or taken because of the munchies. These theories are interesting and widely spread, but mostly maintained to be false.
The show was originally mentioned to be based off of
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, where
Fred is based off of
Dobie, Shaggy on Maynard, Velma on Zelda, and Daphne on Thalia.
Hannah-Barbara based their cartoons off of
successful TV shows (the Flintstones was based off of
The Honeymooners)
According to
Glowing Fish there is a similar myth concerning the
Claremont Colleges.
The specifics of this myth, and its debunking can be found at:
http://www.amherst.edu/~bgjohnso/wwwfaq.html#trivia.scooby