Mountain lion? No.
Ocelot? Serval? Caracal? Nope. Nope. And nope.
Lynx? Eh, close.
Bobcat? Almost.
Of all the world's wild cats - and wildcats - Wilbur, the University of Arizona mascot, is a creature unto himself. With the face of a bobcat, the tail of a cougar and the fashion sense of a college student, Wilbur is his own tom.
Before Wilbur was Wilbur, he was a live bobcat named Tom Easter. UA teams earned their nickname, the Wildcats, after a hard-fought football game against the Occidental College Tigers on Nov. 7, 1914. A Los Angeles Times columnist wrote that the Arizona team "showed the fight of wildcats," according to the university website. Eleven months later, the team mascot was made official when the freshman football team purchased Tom Easter for $9.41 from a local blacksmith. Soon after, Tom's name was changed to Rufus Arizona in honor of then-UA President Rufus Bernard Von KleinSmid. Unfortunately, Rufus Arizona used up his nine lives rather quickly. Five months after he joined the team, an inattentive caretaker tied the bobcat's leash to a tree limb. When Rufus tried to jump down, he was hanged. Undeterred, the school continued to use live mascots into the late 1950s.
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In the late 1950s, two students suggested the school mascot take the form of a costumed human. Wilbur the Wildcat made his first appearance on the field in 1959. And that's where the confusion begins. For the first few decades it seemed clear that the "Wildcat" mascot was a bobcat. But when Wilbur took the field he had the head of a bobcat and the tail of a mountain lion. The combination - not to mention the clothing - set him apart from any other wild wildcat. More than 50 years later, representations of Wilbur still include a fuzzy, bobcatty face and a long tail he swings like a lariat - his signature move. Clearly Wilbur is of mixed parentage, but school administrators are at a loss to explain his ancestry.
When asked why a bobcat mascot has a long tail, Roberta Quiroz, adviser to the university's cheerleaders and mascots, said: "I don't know if we've ever really gotten that question before. He is just a wildcat as far as I know. When the university does sculptures and stuff, they kind of refer to the bobcat aspect - otherwise we have always referred to Wilbur as a wildcat."
Wilbur's mystique remains intact.
Got an oddity?
Is there something you've noticed while driving through Tucson that has piqued your curiosity? Or is there some piece of Old Pueblo history you've wondered about? Drop us a line, and we'll look into it. Call the Star newsroom at 573-4232 or send an e-mail to oddity@azstarnet.com
Contact reporter Kimberly Matas at kmatas@azstarnet.com or at 573-4191.
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