Kentucky Wildcats

WILDCATS

A description of the football team’s play was the key to Kentucky becoming the Wildcats in 1909. The team had just won a hard fought 6-2 victory over Illinois when Commandant Carbusier, then head of the military department delivered a fateful message to a group of students attending chapel service. Carbusier said that the football team had “fought like wildcats.” The students roared with their approval as the term gained popularity and was adopted by the university.