Bearcat Statue

Bearcat statue on the east side of campus. John Hair, 2010. (Photographer unknown. http://www.bearcattailgater.com/)

The Bearcat, a symbol of aggression and forcefulness, is our University’s mascot. While this symbol perfectly describes our University’s athletic and academic prowess, this mascot was not always associated with UC. Before 1914, the University of Cincinnati did not have a mascot and they were sometimes referred to with names such as “The Cincinnati Eleven” or “The Red and Black.” The term Bearcat didn’t originate until 1914 during a football game against the Kentucky Wildcats. The crowd started a cheer for one of the players named Leonard “Teddy” Baehr. “They may be Wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side.” UC won the game, and in the school newspaper a cartoon depicted the Bearcat victory.

This cartoon appeared in the UC school newspaper after the victory against University of Kentucky in 1914. (The News Record, Cincinnati, Ohio, November 3, 1914. UC Archives)

After that game, the term Bearcat was not widely used or popularly accepted. It wasn’t until 1919 that the term Bearcat stuck. Renowned Cincinnati Reds sports commentator Jack Ryder was covering a UC sporting event and began calling them the Bearcats on Nov. 15, 1919, in Knoxville. The term bearcat is translated from a Chinese name for an animal similar to a panda which literally means “bear-cat”. The animal representation for UC’s Bearcat is the binturong, which is a large feline creature. The first binturong came to Cincinnati in 1989 where it was displayed around campus and kept at the Cincinnati Zoo. To this day, they still have a binturong at the Zoo and it makes appearances at sporting events and on some afternoons can be spotted at McMicken Commons. On December 4, 2010, a large bearcat statue was donated by the Sigma Sigma Men’s Honorary Society. John Hair sculpted the statue which now resides on the east side of campus near Fifth Third Arena

Hand, Greg. "History of the Bearcat Mascot, University of Cincinnati ." University of

Cincinnati. Accessed October 3, 2011. http://www.uc.edu/about/history.html.