TicketsMarch 13, 2008
Now through March 14, college football fans have the opportunity to vote for their favorite mascot to appear on the cover of EA Sports' NCAA Football 2009, the Wii video game platform.
Fans can cast a vote once a day from now until the middle of March, for any major college mascot. To vote for 's official mascot, click on BIG EAST and wait for BEARCAT to appear.
University of were born on Oct. 31, 1914. The occasion was a football game with the University of Kentucky Wildcats, a star UC player named Baehr, a creative cheerleader, and a talented cartoonist.
During the second half of that hard-fought football game, UC cheerleader Norman "Pat" Lyon, building on the efforts of fullback Leonard K. "Teddy" Baehr, created the chant: "They may be Wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side."
The crowd took up the cry: "Come on, Baehr-cat!"
prevailed, 14-7, and the victory was memorialized in a cartoon published on the front page of the student newspaper, the weekly University News, on Nov. 3, 1914. The cartoon, by John "Paddy" Reece, depicted a bedraggled Kentucky Wildcat being chased by a creature labeled "Cincinnati Bear Cats."
The name stuck, but not immediately. Following Teddy Baehr's graduation in 1916, the name dropped out of use, at least in print, for a few years. On Nov. 15, 1919, played at . Cincinnati Enquirer writer Jack Ryder's dispatch on the game was the first time that the major media called UC's teams "Bearcats." From then on, the university's teams were regularly called Bearcats.
What is a Bearcat?
The word first appeared in print circa 1889 as a synonym for the giant panda. "Bearcat" is a simple translation of the Chinese word for panda-xiong mao-which means "bear-cat."
There is no definitive example of what a Bearcat actually is. Here are two theories...
The Red Panda, Ailurus fulgens ("shining cat"), which is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboofeeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic catcmlong, 3 - 6 kg weight). The Red Panda is endemicto the Himalayasin Bhutan, southern China, India, Laos, Nepal, and Burma. Red Panda is the state animal in the Indian state of Sikkim. It is also the mascot of the Darjeelinginternational festivals. There is an estimated population of less than 2,500 mature individuals. Their population continues to decline due to habitat fragmentation. This species more closely resembles the actual Bearcat costumed mascot which is seen at games.
The Binturong (Arctictis binturong), which is a species of the family Viverridae, which includes the civetsand genets. It is neither a bearnor a cat, and the real meaning of the original name is lost, as the local language that gave it is extinct. Its natural habitat is in trees of forest canopy> in rainforest of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Palawan Island.
In past years a live Binturong was present at UC Athletics event, namely a former resident of the Cincinnati Zoo, who is now deceased.