Cheerleading > Wildcat Origin

On November 10, 1917, a small cohort of 22 football players traveled to Atlanta to represent Davidson College against one of the most formidable teams in the South -- Auburn. Auburn's Plainsmen had massacred their first four opponents, outscoring them by a staggering margin of 141-6. According to one account, the Plainsmen were "big, quick, and undefeated," and heavily favored (to grossly understate) in the day's matchup with Davidson. Davidson, by the way, was 2-4 on the season, and started a line averaging 20 pounds less than Auburn's players.

Davidson's team was led into the contest by four outstanding backs: quarterback Henry Spann (5-8, 130), halfbacks John McAlister (5-10, 155) and A.R. "Buck" Flowers (5-8, 140), and fullback R.C. Burns (5-8, 158). Averaging only 153 pounds, the Davidson team was about to face an Auburn team described by the Atlanta Constitution as "the heaviest team in the South."

Not surprisingly, Auburn dominated the game on the turf, outgaining the "Red and Black" with 240 yards to Davidson's 91 yards. Astoundingly, Davidson pulled together an amazing offensive attack through the efforts of Flowers, executing some truly impressive end runs, and quarterback Spann, delivering a "bewildering array of forward passes." Davidson defeated one of the most powerful teams in the South that day with absolute finesse and scrappiness, 21-7.

That scrappiness captured the awe and respect of Atlanta sportswriters, who wrote of the "Wildcats" from Davidson College, whose small stature and ferocious style proved overwhelming for the Auburn camp. An account of the game notes that Morgan Blake of the Atlanta Journal remarked of the Davidson team that "no other team ever put together in these United States of the same weight as coach Fetzer's team could ever get the verdict over the flock of wild men from North Carolina."

Apparently, The Davidsonian picked up on the nickname and it has been so ever since, replacing such milder references as "Red and Black", "Presbyterians," and "Preachers."

-- revised and rewritten from an account in the Davidson College archives.

Davidson College