I know what we need to get over the hump in football next season – a pack of live wolves. Yes, real, snarling, growling, live wolves held on leashes by some poor intern working for the Athletic Department or maybe an actual trained handler through the Vet school. How intimidating would it be to place a handful of wolves behind the visiting team’s end zone during the game and have a player hold the leash for one of the wolves as they run out onto the field!?  

Before everyone gets too worried, I’m not advocating getting rid of Mr. and Mrs. Wuf. They’ve been too much of a fixture at the University since the 1950s when Mr. Wuf was introduced and in 1975, when Mrs. Wuf was introduced alongside women’s athletics at NC State. I don’t want to use live wolves as a replacement – but instead as a compliment.  

Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for the thought of using lives wolves, much less call it an original idea for our mascot. The University in 1950s through the 1960s used live wolves whenever the school could get a hold of them for games. Our last wolf, Lobo III, who was used to commemorate the opening of Carter-Finley Stadium, caused a bit of an embarrassment for the school after a zoology professor found out that our beloved wolf was actually a coyote. Students embraced the coyote, though, and for a period of time he was known as the “Kool Koyote.”  

Nationally, it’s not unheard of – most famous perhaps is the University of Georgia’s long running tradition of using English Bulldogs as a mascot alongside their regular costumed mascot. The University of Memphis has used a Bengal Tiger for the past 17 years and housed him in a state of the art facility that would rival a zoo. Texas has Bevo the longhorn, Navy has Bill the Goat, Baylor has a bear and even UNC-Chapel Hill has its intimidating light blue ram. 

For a school that needs tradition we could easily crank one back up that we let die in the 1960s. A live wolf, or a pack of wolves prowling the sidelines would be pretty sweet, and would get the University some good publicity on TV (how many times have you seen shots of “Uga” on ESPN?). I’m pretty sure wolves are natural enemies of rams. Buy a few wolf pups or adopt rescued ones, let the vet school take care of them and name them after former football players. Bring back the live wolves!