Name-a-Day Calendar, October 22: Western Carolina Catamounts
Page 350 of 365
Chosen in: 1932
Chosen by: A campus-wide contest; selected by athletics director C.C. Poindexter but originator unclear
What is today Western Carolina University began in 1889 as an institution more analogous to a high school than a university. It gradually grew into a normal school and then, in 1925, into a state college.
Intercollegiate athletics came with the debut of the men’s basketball team in 1927, just after the upgrade into a state college. As teacher education was still a large part of the school’s curriculum, their teams were often called the Teachers. But when the football team came along in 1931, head coach and athletics director C.C. Poindexter deemed that nickname unsatisfactory.
In 1932, Poindexter held a campus-wide contest to select a new nickname. The two finalists in this contest were “Mountain Boomers” (a type of small ground squirrel often found roaming the school’s campus) and “Catamounts” (a general term for a few different species of mountain cat, most often the cougar and the puma). Poindexter preferred “Catamounts”, so that was the pick. It’s remained the nickname ever since.
Today, Western Carolina is represented by a costumed catamount named Paws.
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