Willie the Wildcat is the mascot

Mascot

The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...

 for the Kansas State University

Kansas State University

Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...

 Wildcats

Kansas State Wildcats

Kansas State University's athletic teams are called the Wildcats. The official color of the teams is Royal Purple, making Kansas State one of very few schools that have only one official color; white and silver are generally used as complementary colors.Kansas State participates in...

. He is not to be confused with the mascot for Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

, also named Willie the Wildcat.

History

At the start of the 20th century, Kansas State's athletic teams first acquired the nickname "Aggies." This name lives on in the entertainment district that abuts the University, Aggieville

Aggieville

Aggieville is the name of six square blocks consisting of college-age oriented bars, restaurants and shops in Manhattan, Kansas, USA.- History :...

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Adoption of the nickname

• 1906-1909: A black Labrador
  Labrador Retriever
  The Labrador Retriever is one of several kinds of retriever, a type of gun dog. A breed characteristic is webbed paws for swimming, useful for the breed's original purpose of retrieving fishing nets. The Labrador is the most popular breed of dog by registered ownership in Canada, the United...
  
   named Boscoe represented K-State at baseball and football games.
• 1915: Prior to the football season, new coach John Bender
  John R. Bender
  John R. "Chief" Bender was an American football player and coach of football, basketball and baseball. He served as the head football coach at Washington State University , Haskell Indian Nations University , Kansas State University , and the University of Tennessee , compiling a career record of...
  
   gave his squad the nickname "Wildcats."
• 1917: Under Coach Z.G. Clevenger the school teams became known as the "Aggies" or "Farmers."
• 1920: Coach Charles Bachman
  Charles Bachman
  Charles William "Charlie" Bachman is an American computer scientist, who spent his entire career as an industrial researcher rather than in academia...
  
   took over the football program, again renaming the team the "Wildcats." This time the nickname stuck.
• 1922-1978: A real bobcat
  Bobcat
  The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...
  
   named Touchdown (I-XI), served as team mascot at games. "Touchdown" could be found at Sunset Zoo
  Sunset Zoo
  Sunset Zoo, also known as Sunset Zoological Park, is the city zoo of Manhattan, Kansas, and is home to 300 species of animals.- Mission :...
  
   in Manhattan until the 1980s.. Touchdown I was captured in Idaho and donated to K.S.A.C. The animal though did not see a college football game as it died from injuries received from a porcupine it got in a fight with before it was shipped to Manhattan. Touchdown II soon replaced TD I and was at K-State for 14 years .

Costumed Mascot

The first costumed Willie mascot appeared in 1947. Since this time Willie has changed many times, and currently has an appearance that is heavily influenced by the team's Powercat logo.

• 1947: K-State's first costumed mascot, "Sparky," appeared at the September football game against Oklahoma A&M. This was by Manhattan High student Andrea Simmons Andersen during halftime performing gymnastics for the crowd in a red-brown wildcat costume with black stripes and a tail. Lack of winning games resulted in fans replacing the young girl with a college student. She was to be the only female to be a K-State mascot. (First Generation)
• 1960s: Fraternity members took responsibility of wearing the Willie Wildcat costume and cheering at games. The original K-State Willie costume, which debuted in 1964, was purple in color with large ears that somewhat resembled Mickey Mouse
  Mickey Mouse
  Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
  
  . (Second Generation)

• 1967-1980: Sculptor Jim Hagan created a new, "meaner-looking" Willie head with coyote and wolf hair. (Third Generation)
• 1980-1993: A second Willie head made in 1967 by Jim Hagan is used.
• 1985: The "beefed-up" Willie appeared while still using third generation style head. (Fourth Generation)
• 1994-1996: Last pre-Powercat Willie (Fifth Generation)

Powercat Logo

• 1989: Powercat logo introduced by football coach Bill Snyder
  Bill Snyder
  Bill Snyder is the head football coach at Kansas State University. He was rehired to the position on November 24, 2008, making Snyder one of the rare college football head coaches to have non-consecutive tenure at the same school. Snyder previously served as head coach at the school from 1989 to...
  
  , wanting a new logo for his team. Tom Bookwalter, a Kansas native and K-State art professor, created the logo.

• 1997: The current "21st Century" Willie was created, it has gray fur with two white stripes to resemble the Powercat logo. This head includes an internal, electronic cooling fan and weighs five pounds. Willie can be seen at various K-State sporting events, often dressed as an athlete. (Sixth Generation)

Personality

While the student inside the mascot costume (whose identity is kept secret) changes every few years, the persona of Willie has remained the same throughout. Willie likes crowd surfing

Crowd surfing

Crowd surfing is the process in which a person is passed overhead from person to person during a concert, transferring the person from one part of the venue to another...

 and does one push-up for each point on the board for K-State when the Wildcats score a touchdown

Touchdown

A touchdown is a means of scoring in American and Canadian football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone.-Description:...

 or make a field goal

Field goal (football)

A field goal in American football and Canadian football is a goal that may be scored during general play . Field goals may be scored by a placekick or the now practically extinct drop kick.The drop kick fell out of favor in 1934 when the shape of the ball was changed...

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