Why Linfield athletic teams are Wildcats

Why the Wildcats?

As competitive athletics increased in popularity and prominence during the 1920s, the Linfield student body voted that the college’s athletic mascot would be a “Wildcat” because Linfield was “a small school with a lot of fight and scratch.”

Before the 1924 vote, spectators at Linfield athletic events cheered variously for the “Baptists”, owing to Linfield’s early heritage, or the “Cardinal and Purple,” a reference to the school colors.

The current Linfield athletic logo, showing a scowling Wildcat wearing a jauntily cocked sailor's cap, first became a fixture in 1963 under Hall of Fame coach Paul Durham.  It remains a recognizable symbol of all Linfield varsity athletic teams.

Source: https://golinfieldwildcats.com/sports/2017/8/30/why-the-wildcats.aspx?id=58

Athletic Name

"Wildcats is the new name which will strike terror into the hearts of Linfield's antagonists in future athletic games.

The associated students Wednesday morning selected the name "Wildcats" as the official nickname for Linfield's teams, since it is a small school with a lot of fight and scratch. 

Source:  Linfield Review, Dec. 3, 1924

LINFIELD WILD CATS

PLAY PIRATES ON
THANSKGIVING DAY
Two Teams Are Evenly Matched
Prospects for Best Game of Season
Thursday afternoon the Linfield Spartans will meet the Albany Pirates in Linfield’s last game of the season …

Source: McMinnville Telephone-Register, Nov. 28, 1924

(Comments from March 2019 … Albany College Pirates in Albany, Ore., later became the Lewis and Clark College Pioneer of Portland, Ore. Don’t confuse the Albany Pirates with the Whitworth Pirates of Spokane, Wash.)

In March 2019, Rich Schmidt, Linfield archivist in the college’s Nicholson Library, said the student vote took place Nov. 26, 1924. However, the results of the voting and on what those voting were voting cannot be determined. In other words, were those voting just to approve “Wildcats,” or were they given alternative nicknames? And, how many voted out of the few hundred Linfield students at the time? We don’t know.

The Dec. 3, 1924, Linfield Review student newspaper reported on the voting. See two photos posted above from that issue.

In March 2019, a Linfield grad reviewed some McMinnville Telephone-Register (now called News-Register) newspaper issues of November and December 1924. 

A headline in the Nov. 28, 1924 Telephone-Register called the Linfield football team the “Wild Cats” (in the early days, Wildcats and Wild Cats were both used). But, puzzingly, the story called the team the “Spartans.” See that story posted here, too.