Wampus Cat mascot celebrates 75 years

CLARK FORK

Behold the Clark Fork Wampus Cats.

For my money, there is no better mascot in the state, if not the country. The mountain lion with a spiked ball on the end of its tail is a source of pride for the residents of Clark Fork, and the history and lore behind it are as interesting as the name itself.

Unlike Tigers, Wildcats, Bulldogs and the like, there are not scores of Wampus Cat squads. In fact, there are only five high school teams in the United States that boast the unique name.

In 1935, the local newspapers were simply called them the Clark Fork team, until teacher Al Derr came up with the new name. The Wampus Cat was voted on by students over a few other options, including the “Sidehill Gougers,” a cougar with legs shorter on one side to better traverse the local mountains. Maybe it’s just me, but the Clark Fork Sidehill Gougers doesn’t have quite same the ring to it.

My first introduction to Clark Fork was as a football referee in the North Idaho Association more than a decade ago, and I remember being awe-struck by the stunning views of Lake Pend Oreille while driving to the game. Of course my first question, like most, was ‘what is a Wampus Cat?’

In typical eight man fashion, the game was equal parts track meet and football, and the Wampus Cats hit the 45 point mercy rule by half time. Our officiating crew was back in Coeur d’Alene before many of the region’s games had ended.

My next trip to Clark Fork came as an assistant football coach at Lakeside under Ron Miller, who called the bus trip north his favorite. This time I noticed picturesque Scotchman Peak, hovering majestically behind our sideline.

Ask a Clark Fork local what a Wampus Cat is and you’ll get a variety of entertaining answers. Bob Hays, who owns Hays Chevron and played at Clark Fork in the late 50s, says he gets asked about the name often by people driving through the little town.

“They say what the hell’s a Wampus Cat?” laughs Hays, who still runs hoop down at the high school. “I tell them it’s a big cat that stays up in the mountains and eats snow snakes in the winter.”

Head football coach Brian Arthun, who like many coaches at the 1A level doubles as athletic director, says it’s usually the first question opposing coaches ask him before games.

“I tell them it’s a fierce mythical creature and based off Native American history,” he explains. “I like the fact we have a unique mascot, not your typical Wildcats or Tigers.”

A Wikipedia search of Wampus Cats turns up some interesting fables as well. Cherokee mythology believes a woman disguised herself in the skin of a mountain lion to spy on the men, only to be discovered and turned into a half-woman/half-cat by a medicine man. Her spirit still haunts the mountains of Tennessee.

Another legend holds that a six-legged Wampus Cat was created by the government in the 1940s, a fierce message carrier to be used in World War II, much like the passenger pigeons of World War I. Four of the legs were to run lickety split and the other two were for fighting.

In these parts, it’s named for a mountain lion that stalks its prey on the banks of the Clark Fork river, before swinging a heavy spiked ball from the end of its tail to strike down its victims.

Lifelong Clark Fork resident Shirley Dawson Crawford, 76, fondly remembers Fritz Vogel pointing up to 7,009 foot Scotchman Peak and telling her and the other kids if they listened closely, they would hear a Wampus Cat.

“He’d always say don’t let it hit you with the tail; it’s deadly,” she recalls. “Us as kids used to look for the ball with spikes, but we’d never see one. We’d always say we heard them.”

Perhaps Clark Fork’s Billy Coldsnow said it best back in the 1940’s, when he was asked by a varsity opponent from Sandpoint what a Wampus Cat was. Local lore holds that Coldsnow replied “it’s a big pussycat that eats Bulldogs.” That was back when they were still Clark’s Fork — before the U.S. Postal Service decided to remove the “s” from the name in the 1950s — and held their own against Sandpoint, Rathdrum, Rose Lake, Spirit Lake, Post Falls, Kingston, Worley and Plummer.

Corey Vogel, who joined his grandfather and dad as Wampus Cats and whose son will soon carry on the legacy, said the sports teams wear the nickname with great pride.

“We were always proud of what it represented, that we were different than the average mascot,” said Vogel, who graduated in 1988 and remembers playing against the Plummer Pirates and Worley Huskies before they merged to form the Lakeside Knights. “It’s always been our little end of the world, and we’ve always banded together and rallied around that.”

Eric Plummer is sports editor of the Daily Bee in Sandpoint. For comments, suggestions or story ideas, he can be reached at “eplummer@bonnercountydailybee.com,” or at 263-9534, ext. 226.