A 15-foot tall bronze Bearcat statue is located at the end of Champions Avenue between the Jefferson Avenue Sports Complex, Fifth Third Arena and the baseball field.
The University of Cincinnati Bearcats were born on Oct. 31, 1914. The occasion was a football game with the University of Kentucky. At this time, the UC team had no real nickname. The teams were known variously as "Varsity," the "Cincinnati Eleven," the "Red & Black" and the coach's "boys," as in "Dana's Boys" or "Little's Boys."
Mascots were uncommon among college football teams back then, and UC had no mascot, although a curious bulldog, clad in a "C" sweater and miniature hat, was depicted throughout the athletic sections of the yearbooks.
A new era was born when Kentucky came to town. The Wildcats were a formidable team and UC was struggling. During the second half of the game, cheerleader Norman "Pat" Lyon, building on the efforts of fullback Leonard K. "Teddy" Baehr, created a new chant: "They may be Wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side."
The first Bearcat cheer was invented in 1915. In that year of the school yearbook students included a mock-epic poem, "The Kentucky State Wildcats vs. The Cincinnati Bearcats," which ended:
"At last outplayed, outtricked /
Outrun, outpassed, outkicked /
Bearcat had Wildcat licked/Fourteen to seven."