Name-a-Day Calendar, October 11: Vermont Catamounts
Page 339 of 365
Chosen in: 1926
Chosen by: Male student body vote administered by The Vermont Cynic student newspaper
The University of Vermont began playing football in 1886.1 Their sports teams had no official nickname for a long while. It wasn’t until February 6, 1926, that The Vermont Cynic student newspaper tried to adopt one. In that issue, they asked students both if they wanted a mascot at all and, if so, what they wanted that mascot to be. Included was a ballot with three options: Lynx, Wildcats, and Other.
The Cynic didn’t get much of a response, so they discarded the vote entirely. A few months later, in mid-May, they tried again with a different ballot: Camels, Catamounts, Cows, and Tomcats. For some unexplained reason, despite the university having been coeducational since 1871, The Cynic only allowed male students to submit ballots.
Modern university sources claim that “Catamounts” won this election by a vote of 138-126, but none of them specify what exactly the “126” represents. Number of votes by one specific option? (If so, which?) Number of votes by every other option combined? It’s moot, but I care about these things!
In case you’re not familiar, the term “catamount” is sometimes used to refer to several different species of wild cats that can be found in the mountains, most often the puma and the cougar. These species were once abundant in Vermont, but were hunted to regional extinction in the 1800s, well before The Cynic included them on their mascot ballot.
Vermont’s mascot is a costumed catamount named Rally Cat.
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They stopped playing football in 1974.