Wildcats aren't feral cats. They are different species from the domestic cat. In the US, the term usually refers to the bobcat. My mom's high school mascot was a wildcat. They had huge blue pawprints painted on the sidewalks near the school.
A wildcat is an actual animal. It's not a generic term. There's the European Wildcat and the African Wildcat. They aren't descended from domestic cats but share a common ancestor.
So the cardinal is a red bird. As someone from the UK I did wonder why some US sports teams named themselves after senior members of the Roman Catholic church.
The northern cardinal is the state bird of several states. It's really popular, probably because it's one of the few brightly colored birds of the mid-latitudes.
And there are schools who've chosen the "red devil" as their mascot. I've often wondered why schools would want to label their kids that way. And just who suggested and approved these mascots in past decades?
hate, you're in the small minority. Tshalla... give it a rest. I'm also part indigenous American, though the only people that this would matter to are racist small-minded idiots so I'm reluctant to even bring it up as if it gives me some authority to have an opinion (it doesn't), and I understand that the Redskins mascot was meant as something positive, that the redesigned logo was created by Walter Wetzel a former Blackfeet tribal chairman, that the large majority of Americans with indigenous ancestry either didn't give a crap about the Redskins or saw it as something positive, and that the decision to change it was a very stupid one based on fear and ignorance.
As a European who doesn't understand that much about the whole racism controversy in the US, I used to see names like Redskins or Indians as something alike Vikings, Spartans, Trojans etc. - a name that instills respect and shows that these people were seen as fierce and proud warriors. Of course that's a stereotype and fairly one-dimensional, but with my non-American understanding of the term, I wouldn't call it racist. To me, racism always contains the idea of superior and inferior people, and I don't see that here.
659 really. While I don't think we should be naming our teams the Indians, I definitely don't think we should be naming them for people who went around forcing people to either become Christian or to die.
by the same logic-- if you're not offended by something, don't express an opinion if it's changed. chances are, others are, and something shouldn't be kept just because of your opinion
Probably stems from Duke. In turn, Duke got their name (according to Wikipedia) from: the French "les Diables Bleus" or "the Blue Devils," which was the nickname given during World War I to the Chasseurs Alpins, the French Alpine light infantry battalion.
I went to a school in NYC whose mascot and teams were the Bearcats. I had to Google "bearcat". We didn't have a lot of school spirit. Could be the very obscure mascot & team name. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binturong
i have never seen highschohol musical and somehow i was still able to get most of these( not wildcats though lLOL) my high school mascot is missing from this list.....
Great QUIZ!! Thank you for making jet punk fun :)