A vote by the students. Over the course of just three weeks back in 1924, that's all it took to adopt the bobcat as the College's official mascot. Anyone at Bates will tell you that faced with a problem, the College will find a committee to handle it. Indeed, throughout the winter, spring, and summer of 1997, a ten-member campus committee met with Woodworth to develop a new and approved bobcat design. So the committee began with Bobcat 101.
People usually think it's bigger than it is.
It's not that big, but very ferocious. Marchildon should know something about the bobcat. While hunting in the Hanover, Maine, area back in 1987, the Rumford native and his father bagged a bobcat and had it stuffed and mounted. Most bobcats weigh between 25 and 30 pounds, but look bigger because of their thick, dappled coat. Night hunters, bobcats stalk their prey alone.