Eugena Fairman McNall, class of 1910, was the first to draw a series of spotted wildcat cartoon figures for the book’s athletic pages. The images depict a wildcat cooking a football rival over a campfire, throwing a ball wearing a baseball mitt, racing on the track and displaying the Missouri Valley Conference basketball championship trophy.

Her drawings remind us of football coach John Bender, who in the fall of 1915 changed the name of the team from the Kansas Aggies to the Wildcats. He said the squad had a fighting spirit indicative to the native bobcat commonly referred to as a wildcat.

Alas, Bender departed after one losing season, but the Wildcat name was planted. Subsequent football coaches returned to using the Aggies until 1920, when football coach Charles Bachman established the Wildcats as the team’s name.

A content analysis of the athletics pages of the yearbooks from 1917 to 1935 shows references to Kansas Aggies and Aggie Wildcats used simultaneously to refer to KSAC and Kansas State College teams. Then football coach Lynn Waldorf’s team won the 1934 Big Six Conference football championship. Yearbooks after that referred only to the Wildcats.

The first extensively used Wildcat logo by KSC, and later Kansas State University, was the snarling “Full-faced Wildcat” with ears pointed up. It was depicted during various seasons from 1933 to 1971. It graced the jackets of basketball and tennis players as well as sweaters of the cheer squad and members of the men’s and women’s pep clubs. In fall 1969, football coach Vince Gibson was the first to use this logo on team helmets. Previously, helmets were a solid color or striped, sometimes with a “K” or a “KSU.”

The third logo, “Fighting Willie,” was introduced in 1939 and depicts a furious, growling wildcat with its head turned. It is without a body and graced uniforms and apparel during various school years until it was retired in 1992. According to archival records, this logo did not originate at K-State but was adapted from the one used by Northwestern University. 

John Fairman, former K-State assistant vice president for university relations and first director of licensing, said in a 1992 news article that Northwestern never complained because in those days universities did not trademark their logos as today.

The longest continuously used K-State Wildcat logo is often referred to as the “Cartoon Willie” or “Flag Willie.” It first appeared in the pages of the 1951 Royal Purple gracing the sweaters of pep club members. This image resembles the character Tom the Cat drawn by William Hanna and Joseph Barbara in their animated cartoons, Tom and Jerry, produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starting in 1940.

This logo underwent various transformations, but three stand out. The 1951 Willie mostly resembles the Hanna-Barbara Tom wearing a “K” letter sweater and carrying a K-State pennant.

The eyes, ears, feet and mouth were redrawn in 1954 to create the “Friendly Willie.” This became the official logo of the K-State Alumni Association at the time. The marching band used the head of this logo on its uniforms. According to Breymeyer, for more than 70 years this logo remains one of the most popular nostalgic images.

In 1985, this Willie grew broad shoulders, muscular arms and mean teeth. Referred to as the “Tough Willie,” K-State’s Office of University Relations did the design.

The second variant of this image is Willie resting his arm and body on the word “WILDCATS.” It appeared in 1974.

John Fairman introduced K-State’s final logo in 1995 strictly for merchandising on the local and national levels. He worked with art professor David Harmes ’84, who challenged his graphic arts class to create the logo.

The winner was Michael Colahan ’95, a senior in fine arts. His aggressive wildcat logo, called the “K-Cat,” clawed through K-State lettering. He also designed a baby wildcat for the youth market with the lettering “Born a Wildcat.” In exchange for his design and ownership rights, the university paid Colahan $2,000, said Fairman. 

Fairman introduced the university to logo licensing in 1987, raising approximately $7,000 the first year. Thanks to the Powercat popularity and K-State’s athletic successes, licensing raised more than $700,000 annually before his retirement in 2005.