Butch T. Cougar
Mascot
Butch The Cougar is the mascot of Washington State University. As his name indicates, Butch is a cougar.
History
Though the cougar was adopted as Washington State University's mascot in 1919 it was not until 1927 when a cougar cub was presented to the student body of Washington State that Butch T. Cougar was born. The cougar was named Butch after Herbert "Butch" Meeker of Spokane, a WSU football star from the 1920s.
Butch was represented by a live cougar until 1978; Butch VI, in declining health with multiple ailments and approaching age 15, was euthanized in late August. That October, university president Glenn Terrell decided to discontinue the live mascot tradition.
Today, Butch is represented by a costumed student. Butch T. Cougar was the 2006 Capital One Mascot of the Year.
Origin
Butch T. Cougar was born on October 1, 1927. Governor Roland H. Hartley presented the university with the first live cougar mascot during the 1927 football Homecoming game, and thus Butch's character was born.
The public source identifies “Butch T. Cougar” as mascot. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Butch, Cougar and Mascot.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5002425. The Library of Congress control number is sh2018002674. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1919, 1927, 1978 and 2006.
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This entry incorporates text from “Butch T. Cougar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.