WCJ is re-publishing the article from The Sylva Herald that brings a story about WCU mascot ‘Satan’ during late 1940s. Story written by Jim Buchanan.
The idea of a mascot named Satan seems a little bit shocking these days, but then again school symbols with connotations to the underworld aren’t uncommon – just think of Duke’s Blue Devils or Wake Forest’s Demon Deacons. Or for that matter, Swain’s Maroon Devils.
Back in the late 1940s, Western Carolina Teachers College, which had adopted the Catamount for a mascot, was gifted with an actual “Catamount.” The Oct. 2, 1947 Sylva Herald reported an ocelot, a species of wildcat native to Mexico and Southern Texas, was shipped to WCTC by Snake King of Brownsville, Texas.
It was described as “2 ½ feet long and has an additional foot of tail, and is untamed.”
As to the name Satan, it may have reflected the animal’s temperament. The name was evidently picked by the student body. The Oct. 16, 1947 Herald wrote, “The problem of naming the school’s mascot, a catamount, this catamount being a Texas ocelot, was taken up, and it was decided to ask the student body to furnish a name by means of a contest.”
“All students will be invited to submit names, which will be judged by a committee composed of the president and two additional members of each class. It was decided, too, to build the animal an attractive cage, which will be designed by Miss Charlotte Watson, art teacher at the college.”
Sadly for Satan, the fancy new housing was long in coming. In the Western Carolinian of Oct. 10, 1948, Charlie West penned an article on the ocelot.
In a creative twist, he decided to interview Satan, whose novelty had apparently worn off.
“When I (Satan) arrived here last year everyone seemed glad to see me. They all made quite a fuss over me and for days I was the center of attraction. It was a wonderful welcome and I was happy to be at such a school. The school made me a beautiful display cart and I moved in it – temporarily. There was to be a big outdoor cage where I could move around freely.
“I have been living in this cage for a year now and I still have no big cage. This isn’t intentional I know because the college plans to build one as soon as possible … but already I am beginning to get stiff in the joints.
“In spite of the warnings the Monogram Club has posted, people still tease me and poke sticks in my cage. I am tempted at times to mangle some of the students’ hands if they keep putting them on the wire. I have resisted this temptation for a long time.
“…the crowning indignity is even worse. In fact, I am so humiliated over it that I hesitate to tell you.
“I was not even shown to the freshmen during freshman week. My pride has suffered an awful blow and I am in the uttermost depths of despair.
“Please, Charlie, see what you can do to restore my rank and my ego.”
In short, Charlie West seemed to have sympathy for Satan.
And Satan seemed to have a case for that sympathy.
The larger cage did become reality. Steve White, longtime sports information director for Western Carolina and the walking encyclopedia of all things Catamount, said, “According to my deceased neighbor, Clint Dodson (head of WCU’s Science Department and longtime chairman of the athletics committee), the live mascot was housed in a dog lot-type cage beside the cafeteria.
“The animal looked somewhat like a catamount, but had yellowish hair and emitted a terrible odor. It did not remain on campus long.”
The last reference I could find regarding the exotic mascot was the 1953 Catamount Yearbook, which featured an introduction by Satan.
In a 2013 article the Herald’s Lynn Hotaling wrote that “During the 1940s, a live ocelot was kept at WCU and used to represent its Catamount, but that particular notion of a Catamount faded after the animal’s death.”
So, too, did Satan’s association with Western Carolina.
