ACU101
The wildcat represents a genre of feisty North American felines including the bobcat and lynx. Regardless of its ancestry, it can be one ornery critter when cornered. Students chose the wildcat in a 1919 contest to select an athletics mascot (runner-up: antelopes), and enthusiastically raised $6,300 to build and name a playing field along South First Street for football, baseball and intramural sports. The venue just west of downtown Abilene was named Wildcat Park. Here’s what you need to know about ACU’s mascot.
This cartoon character for Willie was created in 1996 to accompany his new costume and was used in marketing to kids. BELOW A mounted wildcat was paraded in a cart around Abilene’s Fair Park stadium during an event in the 1940s.
Bob Thomas A bobcat captured near the banks of the Devil’s River in Val Verde County became ACU’s first live Wildcat mascot. Named Bob Thomas, he participated in the 1923 West Texas Fair Parade but died soon after and was buried on the North First Street campus near Daisy Hall. A funeral attended in late September by students and administrators included a poem read by senior Frank Kercheville (’24): We’re sad today, old fighting pal, To see you lie so low, You came to mean a lot to us That try to play the game. But your fight and dauntless spirit Shall fire our every team And those fierce eyes will burn the path To many a victory.
Mrs. Bob Thomas A female bobcat trapped by student Raymond Howard (’33) and his father in Lampasas County arrived on campus in January 1926 to replace a stuffed one employed since 1924. Named Mrs. Bob Thomas, she lived in the back of the bookstore and growled fiercely when first presented to president Batsell Baxter. When asked what he was going to do with the college’s new gift, Baxter said, “I’m going to leave her alone.”
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Summer-Fall 2016
ACU TODAY