What Name Is The Mascot Of The Washington State Cougars?

The Washington State Cougars, the mascot of Washington State University, was officially adopted in 1919. Before then, the official mascot was “Squirt”, a terrier dog. In 1927, Governor Roland Hartley presented a cougar cub to the students of Washington State, named Butch in honor of Herbert “Butch” Meeker of Spokane, a WSU football star from the 1920s. The cougar was named Butch after Meeker, who was just 5 feet 5 inches tall.

The mascot program is run by the WSU Spirit Squads as part of the WSU Athletics department housed on the WSU-Pullman campus. In 1936, when Washington State College boasted a real live cougar mascot named Butch, Johnson remembered the sleek cat as having a personality that commanded. Due to Johnson’s fondness for cougars, he decided to name his new team after the big cat. The name quickly caught on, and by 1946, the University of Washington had its first mascot, named Butch T. Cougar.

The mascot, like most mascots, is an anthropomorphized cougar with an oversized head and typically wears the uniform of the sport that the university plays. In October, university president Glenn Terrell decided to discontinue the live mascot tradition. Today, the mascot is an anonymous student wearing a cougar costume, with the identity only revealed after the last sporting event of the school year, usually the last home basketball game of the season.