1) Wilbur, do you take this mascot to be your wife?
Wilbur T. Wildcat became the official costumed mascot in 1959 when he debuted at Arizona?s home football game versus Texas Tech. In 1986, Wilbur met his ?better? half when Wilma T. Wildcat came onto the scene. Wilbur and Wilma were later married in November 1986 during the Arizona State game. However, Wilbur and Wilma didn?t always walk the sidelines at Arizona. The school?s original mascot was a live bobcat, which was purchased by the freshman football team as a gift in 1915. The bobcat was named Rufus Arizona, in honor of the president of the university. Rufus died the next year, and, while live mascots were used sporadically over the next 50 years, Wilbur T. took over and has been in place ever since. As a side note, the Wildcat nickname was given to the university by a Los Angeles Times columnist, who claimed that the Arizona football team ?showed the fight of wildcats? during its game against Occidental College (CA) on Nov. 7, 1914.
2) How many nicknames did ASU endure before ?Sun Devil? caught fire (so to speak)?
Two, to be exact. When Arizona State, then known as Tempe Normal, played its first football game in 1889, the students elected to go with ?Owls? as the official school nickname. Years later, when Tempe Normal changed its name to Arizona State Teachers College, the nickname ?Bulldogs? supplanted the Owl moniker. Finally, in the fall of 1946, the student newspaper, The State Press, held a vote of the student body to see if the newly proposed nickname of ?Sun Devils? would gain favor. After receiving an overwhelming approval rating (over 80%), the school officially changed its tune on November 20, 1946. Walt Disney artist Bert Anthony sketched the mascot ?Sparky? and the mascot was born. The individual responsible for the proposed Sun Devil nickname, however, remains a mystery.
3) Duck, Duck, ? Puddles?
In Oregon university?s early days, the student body referred to themselves as ?Webfooters?. L.H. Gregory, sports editor of The Oregonian, was given credit for using ?Webfoots? as the school?s original nickname. The paper?s headline writers, however, started referring to the athletic teams as ?Ducks? and Oregon?s first live mascot became known as ?Puddles? in the early 1920s. The mascot survived until the early 1940s when complaints from the Humane Society discouraged bringing a live duck to the games (geez!). Puddles managed to survive until 1947 when Oregon?s first A.D., Leo Harris, reached an agreement with Walt Disney to have Donald Duck become the university?s official mascot. Following Disney?s death in 1966, it became apparent that a formal contract did not exist to allow the school the rights to Donald?s image. But in 1973, a written contract was signed between Oregon?s athletic department and Walt Disney Productions, which allowed the continued use of the famous cartoon character. Eventually, in 1984, Donald Duck (during the year of his 50th birthday) was named as an honorary alumnus of the university. As a side note, when the state motto was changed from ?The Webfoot State? to ?The Beaver State? in 1909, the Oregon students changed the yearbook from ?The Webfoot? to ?The Beaver? before eventually switching it back. The ?Duck? nickname throughout the years also fought off other proposed nicknames such as Timberwolves, Lum-berjacks, Trappers, Pioneers, Yellowjackets, and Spearsmen, which was proposed in honor of football coach C.W. Spears (1930-31).
4) Was Oregon?s loss Oregon State?s gain?
In the previous explanation of Oregon?s nickname history, it was noted that, in 1909, the State of Oregon changed its state motto from ?The Webfoot State? to ?The Beaver State?. The Oregon students retained ?The Webfoot? as their yearbook name, which gave way for OSU to officially name its yearbook ?The Beaver? in 1916. The aforementioned L.H. Gregory (see Oregon?s section) is believed to have had a significant influence in changing the school?s nickname to Beavers (in honor of the State?s official animal). It should be noted that, prior to its Beaver nickname, OSU teams were known as the Aggies and later known as the Orangemen, which was prompted by the decision to change the uniforms from gray and tan to orange and black.
5) Do you realize that the Trojan mascot once had some canine competition?
Prior to 1912, the athletic teams of Southern Cal were called ?Methodists? or ?Wesleyans?. However, neither of those nicknames provided much punch to university officials. So, in 1912, A.D. Warren Bovard asked Los Angeles Times sports editor Owen Bird to come up with a more suitable nickname for the die-hard spirit of the USC teams. Bovard pushed the name ?Trojan? while writing an article prior to the USC-Stanford football game, and, eventually, the name took flight. The more suitable mascot for the Trojan is today?s Trojan Soldier and horse, but a dog named George Tirebiter was once the university?s unofficial mascot. George got his name from his love for chasing cars through campus and eventually became a campus hero. The peak of his fame was achieved during a 1947 game versus Cal when he attacked Cal?s human mascot. George died three years later doing what he loved best ? chasing cars. He had two successors, George II and George III, but neither had the redeeming qualities of their predecessor and the canine mascot eventually faded away.
6) How did the Cal Bear mascot get its name?
Oski, the bear, has been the official mascot of the university since 1941. Prior to then, Cal brought live mascots to the football games but, eventually, ran into some problems. After the 1940 season, it was decided that a costumed mascot would provide a less-troublesome and safer environment. The bear is named after the popular Cal yell ?Oski Wow-Wow?, which goes like this: ?Oski! Wow-Wow! Whisky! Wee-Wee! Olee Muckie-Eye! Olee Berkeley-Eye! California! Wow!?. Each year, the identity of the costumed bear is concealed and only the Oski Committee, which selects the individual, knows the true identity of the student underneath the costume.
7) What?s the story behind ?The Axe??
Each year, the universities of Cal and Stanford play what is called the ?Big Game?. These two conference foes, and fierce rivals, battle for the annual rights to the legendary axe. The battle for the axe was born in 1899 during a baseball game between the two schools. The Stanford cheerleaders wielded an axe while yelling these words ?Give them the axe, the axe, the axe! Where? Right in the neck, the neck, the neck!?. This obviously upset some of the Cal faithful, and, when the Cardinal cheerleaders briefly let down their guard, the Berkeley students stole the axe and off with it they ran. The axe remained in Cal?s possession for the next 30 years before two Stanford spies (dressed in navy blue & yellow) reclaimed it during a tear gas-filled rescue mission. After many more years of plots and schemes by both sides alike, designed to capture the axe, both schools decided to settle the matter, in a more civil fashion, on the football field each year. The winning team keeps the piece of hardware until the losing team wins it back.
8) Can you tell me Stanford?s official mascot?
Trick question. There isn?t one. The ?Tree?, you say? Well, that?s actually a member of the Stanford band. The tree is representative of El Palo Alto, which is a famous redwood and is the logo of the city of Palo Alto (home of Stanford?s campus). El Palo Alto still stands today (located by the railroad bridge on the banks of the San Francisquito Creek, which is the area where explorers first camped during the time when the area was settled. The university?s nickname, ?Cardinal?, is named after the official school color, which was born on March 19, 1891 when Stanford beat Cal in the first Big Game. The local newspaper?s headline read, ?Cardinal triumphs O?er Blue and Gold.?. Stanford?s first official nickname was the Indian, which was adopted on Nov. 25, 1930. However, the Indian symbol was eventually dropped in 1975 after 55 students and a group of 358 American Indians felt that the mascot was offensive to the Native American culture.
9) What feature of the UCLA road uniform makes it unique?
The powder blue color, which most Bruin fans consider to be the trademark color of the school, is nowhere to be found. The university?s official colors are blue and gold, but navy blue, not powder blue, is the color adorned on the road jerseys (both football and basketball). What you may not know is that UCLA was initially founded as an extension of its northern neighbor, Cal, and UCLA adopted the same school colors (blue and gold), fight song (except for one significant note), and mascot (a bear). When UCLA was founded in 1919, the school was known as ?SBUC? ? Southern Branch, University of California. Since then, UCLA has tried (successfully, for the most part) to distinguish itself from Cal, but many Bruin fans would like that distinction to be carried into the road unis.
10) Which fan tradition was believed to have been born in Husky Stadium?
Love it or hate it, ?The Wave? first appeared in Husky Stadium on Halloween 1981. On that day, former Washington cheerleader (and former co-host of Entertainment Tonight) Rob Weller returned to his alma mater?s sidelines and, along with band director Bill Bissel, incited the crowd to make a human wave that was designed to have the fans in each part of the crowd stand, section-by-section, until a full circle was made around the stadium. After a few unsuccessful attempts, the maneuver was said to have been executed sometime in the third quarter. It just so happens that the third quarter was when the Huskies reeled off 28 points, en route to a 42-31 victory over legendary quarterback John Elway and his Stanford Cardinal squad.
Wilbur T. Wildcat became the official costumed mascot in 1959 when he debuted at Arizona?s home football game versus Texas Tech. In 1986, Wilbur met his ?better? half when Wilma T. Wildcat came onto the scene. Wilbur and Wilma were later married in November 1986 during the Arizona State game. However, Wilbur and Wilma didn?t always walk the sidelines at Arizona. The school?s original mascot was a live bobcat, which was purchased by the freshman football team as a gift in 1915. The bobcat was named Rufus Arizona, in honor of the president of the university. Rufus died the next year, and, while live mascots were used sporadically over the next 50 years, Wilbur T. took over and has been in place ever since. As a side note, the Wildcat nickname was given to the university by a Los Angeles Times columnist, who claimed that the Arizona football team ?showed the fight of wildcats? during its game against Occidental College (CA) on Nov. 7, 1914.
2) How many nicknames did ASU endure before ?Sun Devil? caught fire (so to speak)?
Two, to be exact. When Arizona State, then known as Tempe Normal, played its first football game in 1889, the students elected to go with ?Owls? as the official school nickname. Years later, when Tempe Normal changed its name to Arizona State Teachers College, the nickname ?Bulldogs? supplanted the Owl moniker. Finally, in the fall of 1946, the student newspaper, The State Press, held a vote of the student body to see if the newly proposed nickname of ?Sun Devils? would gain favor. After receiving an overwhelming approval rating (over 80%), the school officially changed its tune on November 20, 1946. Walt Disney artist Bert Anthony sketched the mascot ?Sparky? and the mascot was born. The individual responsible for the proposed Sun Devil nickname, however, remains a mystery.
3) Duck, Duck, ? Puddles?
In Oregon university?s early days, the student body referred to themselves as ?Webfooters?. L.H. Gregory, sports editor of The Oregonian, was given credit for using ?Webfoots? as the school?s original nickname. The paper?s headline writers, however, started referring to the athletic teams as ?Ducks? and Oregon?s first live mascot became known as ?Puddles? in the early 1920s. The mascot survived until the early 1940s when complaints from the Humane Society discouraged bringing a live duck to the games (geez!). Puddles managed to survive until 1947 when Oregon?s first A.D., Leo Harris, reached an agreement with Walt Disney to have Donald Duck become the university?s official mascot. Following Disney?s death in 1966, it became apparent that a formal contract did not exist to allow the school the rights to Donald?s image. But in 1973, a written contract was signed between Oregon?s athletic department and Walt Disney Productions, which allowed the continued use of the famous cartoon character. Eventually, in 1984, Donald Duck (during the year of his 50th birthday) was named as an honorary alumnus of the university. As a side note, when the state motto was changed from ?The Webfoot State? to ?The Beaver State? in 1909, the Oregon students changed the yearbook from ?The Webfoot? to ?The Beaver? before eventually switching it back. The ?Duck? nickname throughout the years also fought off other proposed nicknames such as Timberwolves, Lum-berjacks, Trappers, Pioneers, Yellowjackets, and Spearsmen, which was proposed in honor of football coach C.W. Spears (1930-31).
4) Was Oregon?s loss Oregon State?s gain?
In the previous explanation of Oregon?s nickname history, it was noted that, in 1909, the State of Oregon changed its state motto from ?The Webfoot State? to ?The Beaver State?. The Oregon students retained ?The Webfoot? as their yearbook name, which gave way for OSU to officially name its yearbook ?The Beaver? in 1916. The aforementioned L.H. Gregory (see Oregon?s section) is believed to have had a significant influence in changing the school?s nickname to Beavers (in honor of the State?s official animal). It should be noted that, prior to its Beaver nickname, OSU teams were known as the Aggies and later known as the Orangemen, which was prompted by the decision to change the uniforms from gray and tan to orange and black.
5) Do you realize that the Trojan mascot once had some canine competition?
Prior to 1912, the athletic teams of Southern Cal were called ?Methodists? or ?Wesleyans?. However, neither of those nicknames provided much punch to university officials. So, in 1912, A.D. Warren Bovard asked Los Angeles Times sports editor Owen Bird to come up with a more suitable nickname for the die-hard spirit of the USC teams. Bovard pushed the name ?Trojan? while writing an article prior to the USC-Stanford football game, and, eventually, the name took flight. The more suitable mascot for the Trojan is today?s Trojan Soldier and horse, but a dog named George Tirebiter was once the university?s unofficial mascot. George got his name from his love for chasing cars through campus and eventually became a campus hero. The peak of his fame was achieved during a 1947 game versus Cal when he attacked Cal?s human mascot. George died three years later doing what he loved best ? chasing cars. He had two successors, George II and George III, but neither had the redeeming qualities of their predecessor and the canine mascot eventually faded away.
6) How did the Cal Bear mascot get its name?
Oski, the bear, has been the official mascot of the university since 1941. Prior to then, Cal brought live mascots to the football games but, eventually, ran into some problems. After the 1940 season, it was decided that a costumed mascot would provide a less-troublesome and safer environment. The bear is named after the popular Cal yell ?Oski Wow-Wow?, which goes like this: ?Oski! Wow-Wow! Whisky! Wee-Wee! Olee Muckie-Eye! Olee Berkeley-Eye! California! Wow!?. Each year, the identity of the costumed bear is concealed and only the Oski Committee, which selects the individual, knows the true identity of the student underneath the costume.
7) What?s the story behind ?The Axe??
Each year, the universities of Cal and Stanford play what is called the ?Big Game?. These two conference foes, and fierce rivals, battle for the annual rights to the legendary axe. The battle for the axe was born in 1899 during a baseball game between the two schools. The Stanford cheerleaders wielded an axe while yelling these words ?Give them the axe, the axe, the axe! Where? Right in the neck, the neck, the neck!?. This obviously upset some of the Cal faithful, and, when the Cardinal cheerleaders briefly let down their guard, the Berkeley students stole the axe and off with it they ran. The axe remained in Cal?s possession for the next 30 years before two Stanford spies (dressed in navy blue & yellow) reclaimed it during a tear gas-filled rescue mission. After many more years of plots and schemes by both sides alike, designed to capture the axe, both schools decided to settle the matter, in a more civil fashion, on the football field each year. The winning team keeps the piece of hardware until the losing team wins it back.
8) Can you tell me Stanford?s official mascot?
Trick question. There isn?t one. The ?Tree?, you say? Well, that?s actually a member of the Stanford band. The tree is representative of El Palo Alto, which is a famous redwood and is the logo of the city of Palo Alto (home of Stanford?s campus). El Palo Alto still stands today (located by the railroad bridge on the banks of the San Francisquito Creek, which is the area where explorers first camped during the time when the area was settled. The university?s nickname, ?Cardinal?, is named after the official school color, which was born on March 19, 1891 when Stanford beat Cal in the first Big Game. The local newspaper?s headline read, ?Cardinal triumphs O?er Blue and Gold.?. Stanford?s first official nickname was the Indian, which was adopted on Nov. 25, 1930. However, the Indian symbol was eventually dropped in 1975 after 55 students and a group of 358 American Indians felt that the mascot was offensive to the Native American culture.
9) What feature of the UCLA road uniform makes it unique?
The powder blue color, which most Bruin fans consider to be the trademark color of the school, is nowhere to be found. The university?s official colors are blue and gold, but navy blue, not powder blue, is the color adorned on the road jerseys (both football and basketball). What you may not know is that UCLA was initially founded as an extension of its northern neighbor, Cal, and UCLA adopted the same school colors (blue and gold), fight song (except for one significant note), and mascot (a bear). When UCLA was founded in 1919, the school was known as ?SBUC? ? Southern Branch, University of California. Since then, UCLA has tried (successfully, for the most part) to distinguish itself from Cal, but many Bruin fans would like that distinction to be carried into the road unis.
10) Which fan tradition was believed to have been born in Husky Stadium?
Love it or hate it, ?The Wave? first appeared in Husky Stadium on Halloween 1981. On that day, former Washington cheerleader (and former co-host of Entertainment Tonight) Rob Weller returned to his alma mater?s sidelines and, along with band director Bill Bissel, incited the crowd to make a human wave that was designed to have the fans in each part of the crowd stand, section-by-section, until a full circle was made around the stadium. After a few unsuccessful attempts, the maneuver was said to have been executed sometime in the third quarter. It just so happens that the third quarter was when the Huskies reeled off 28 points, en route to a 42-31 victory over legendary quarterback John Elway and his Stanford Cardinal squad.
