Happy 100th Birthday Wildcat! Today in 1909 our mascot became the Wildcat

The official nickname for UK’s athletic teams is “Wildcats.” The nickname became synonymous with UK shortly after a 6-2 football victory over Illinois on Oct 9, 1909, on the road. Commandant Carbusier, then head of the military department at old State University, told a group of students in a chapel service following the game that the Kentucky football team had “fought like Wildcats.”