Name-a-Day Calendar, December 26: Cincinnati Bearcats
Page 50 of 365
Chosen in: 1914
Chosen by: Cheerleader Norman “Pat” Lyon and cartoonist John “Paddy” Reece
October 31, 1914: the University of Cincinnati football team, then nameless, is locked in a close game against the Kentucky Wildcats. Cincinnati fullback Leonard K. “Teddy” Baehr, is running all over Kentucky, and the crowd loves it. Cincinnati cheerleader Norman “Pat” Lyon comes up with a chant:
“They may be Wildcats but we have a Baehr-cat on our side!”
The crowd loves this too, as does student newspaper cartoonist John “Paddy” Reece, who commemorates the eventual Cincinnati win by drawing a Kentucky Wildcat being chased by the “Cincinnati Bear Cats”.
This name would become quasi-official until Baehr graduated in 1916, then saw little to no usage for the next three years. A 1919 Cincinnati Enquirer report on their football game against Tennessee once again referred to Cincinnati as the “Bearcats”, and that’s when it truly stuck around.
A bearcat is a real animal, though not a common one and not native to the United States. You won’t find any bearcats in southeast Ohio…unless you visit the Cincinnati Zoo, which houses one for cultural purposes.
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