Despite the overwhelming success of our spring athletes and high expectations for the football team, there is one glaring weakness in our athletic department - excluding basketball - that we must address come next year. Willie needs to go.
The Wildcat is one of the most generic mascots in college sports, roaming the sidelines at more than 25 universities across the country. Teams from the deserts of Arizona to the plains at Kansas State to the city streets of Villanova claim the ambiguous feline as their mascot.
Merriam-Webster defines our mascot as "any of various wild felines of small to medium size." The wildcat, or Felis silvestris, is the direct ancestor to the modern house cat and in the wild is known to be "notoriously timid." All fearful feline puns aside, it's simply not a nickname that should be associated with our athletic program.
So what is Northwestern's remedy for the common Wildcat? Squirrels. Hear me out.
One of the Big Ten's greatest qualities is its affinity for Midwestern critters. We have Wolverines, Golden Gophers and Badgers in this conference, but noticeably absent from this fraternity of furry friends are the squirrels.
And, honestly, they deserve a little more respect. They're already campus celebrities, nabbing headlines in both The Daily and North by Northwestern this year. While less hardy creatures go into hiding during the harsh winter, they bravely scamper at our side in rain, sleet or snow - all the while scavenging for scraps of Burger King, just like us. What other animal embodies the NU spirit quite like these element-tested noble critters?
I don't mean to disregard school traditions. Our nickname dates back to a Chicago Tribune article from 1924 that said the football team looked like ""Wildcats (that) had come down from Evanston" in a game against the University of Chicago. What a lot of people don't remember about that game is that the newly dubbed "Wildcats" lost. To the University of Chicago. Allow me to reiterate: We earned our nickname in a loss to the Maroons.
Changing our mascot to the squirrel would allow us to bring back the time-honored ritual of throwing marshmallows into the tubas at football games that was abandoned during the Gary Barnett era. If our mascot is the squirrel, we will revive this tradition - but with a twist: toss acorns into the tubas. The "Spirit of the Squirrel" would will the nimble NU squad to victory over our disgruntled Badger and Wolverine rivals to the north.
So what becomes of Willie? Give him a bushy tail, replace his fangs with buck teeth and suddenly he's the lovable Sammy the Squirrel. And for the sentimentalists, don't worry, his spirit will live on with his twin at K-State.
NU students are quick-witted, weather-hardened and part of a spirited and energetic campus community. We share these qualities with our furry friends, the squirrels. Let's adopt these critters as our mascot, and allow the squirrels to lead us into a new and exciting era for NU athletics.
Medill sophomore Nick Weldon can be reached at n-weldon@northwestern.edu.
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