The University of Arizona, my alma mater and first home away from home, adopted the Wildcat mascot after a 1914 football where the L.A. Times asserted that Arizona “showed the fight of wildcats.” The universities’ modern mascots are anthropomorphized wildcats named Wilbur and Wilma. Their story begins in the late 1950s when UA students developed an idea for a costumed human mascot with Wilbur the Wildcat officially making his debut during the 1959 football season. Wilma Wildcat is Wilbur’s wife, she was introduced in 1986 when a new costume for Wilbur became a female Wildcat midway through construction.
