Rigoletti the cursed. Rigoletti was a renowned magician in the land of Marvia. He was known for his unparalleled skills and ability to perform unimaginable feats of magic. His performances were always mesmerizing and left the audience in awe. However, behind his charismatic façade, Rigoletti hid a deep dark secret - he was cursed. The curse was placed upon him by a jealous rival magician who envied Rigoletti's talents.

Michigan mascot costume

Michigan does not have a live mascot comparable to Ohio's Brutus Buckeye. The Athletic Department has steadfastly maintained that such a symbol is unnecessary and undignified and would not properly reflect the spirit and values of Michigan athletics. Over the years a number of individuals and groups have proposed mascots in a variety of wolverine costumes but the department has refused to sanction them. Instead, it continues to rely on the wolverine itself as the symbol of Michigan sports.

As early as 1861, the students and alumni began referring to themselves as "Wolverines." How the ferocious animal came be associated with the state and adopted as the university mascot remains a bit of a mystery, but there are several theories.

The simplest reason for the wolverine nickname would be that the animal was abundant in Michigan at some time. However, all the evidence points otherwise, as there has never been a verified trapping of a wolverine inside the state's borders, nor have the skeletal remains of a wolverine been found within the state's 96,705 square miles. The first verified sighting of a wild wolverine inside the state of Michigan ocurred in February of 2004.

The great Michigan football coach Fielding H. Yost had a theory for the nickname, which he wrote about in the Michigan Quarterly Review in 1944. Yost felt that the reason for the nickname concerned the trading of wolverine pelts which occurred at Sault Ste. Marie for many years. The trading station served as an exchange between the Indians, other trappers and fur traders, who would eventually ship the products off to the Eastern United States. Because many of the furs were in fact wolverine pelts, the traders may have referred to them as "Michigan wolverines," leading to the state nickname and ultimately to the University of Michigan symbol.

Eight years later, in the Michigan Quarterly Review of 1952, Albert H. Marckwardt presented another theory for the "wolverine" name. Marckwardt's reasoning is based on the fact that Michigan was first settled by the French in the late 1700s. The appetites of the French were judged to be gluttonous or "wolverine-like" and, therefore, the nickname wolverines was conferred upon them.

The last theory derives from the border dispute between Michigan and Ohio in 1803, often referred to as the "Toledo War." While the two sides argued over the proper setting of the state line, Michiganders were called wolverines. It is unclear, however, whether the Michigan natives pinned this name upon themselves to show their tenacity and strength, or whether Ohioans chose the name in reference to the gluttonous, aggressive, habits of the wolverine. From then on, Michigan was labeled the "Wolverine state" and when the University of Michigan was founded, it simply adopted the nickname of the state it represented.

Fielding Yost set out to find a wolverine in 1923, after seeing Wisconsin carry live badgers along with its football team. Yost's desire met with difficulty, as the coach had problems finding a dealer of live wolverines. After a letter to 68 trappers yielded no mascot for his team, Yost expanded his wish to any wolverine, alive or dead.

Yost was finally able to obtain a mounted wolverine from the Hudson's Bay Fur Company in the fall of 1924, but his quest for a live one continued. In 1927, 10 wolverines were obtained from Alaska and placed in the Detroit Zoo. On big football days, two of these wolverines were brought into Michigan Stadium and carried around in cages.

However, the animals grew larger and more ferocious, and as Yost stated, "It was obvious that the Michigan mascots had designs on the Michigan men toting them, and those designs were by no means friendly." Therefore, the practice of bringing wolverines into the stadium had to be discontinued after only one year. However, one of the wolverines was not returned to the Detroit Zoo. Instead, "Biff" was put in a cage at the University of Michigan Zoo where students were able to visit him at all times. It is not known how long Biff survived or remained at the campus zoo, but by the the late 1930s Yost was in search of a new wolverine mascot.

In 1939, the Chevrolet Motor Company donated a wolverine (as well as the cage to keep it in) to the University of Michigan. The as yet unnamed mascot arrived on campus in time for the season opener against Michigan State. It was apparently his one and only appearance in Michigan Stadium. The Michigan Daily later reported the campus zoo agreed to house the new mascot on the condition he not be taken out to any more football games. "The excitement, musuem officials thought, would be too much for the animal."

Chevrolet sponspred a contest to name the new mascot, with a new car for the winning entry and portable radios for ten runners-up. Some 7,00 entries were submitted along with a 20-word or less rationale for the prosed name. A committee made up of Prof William Burt, instructor in zoology and curator of mammals at the Museum of Zoology; fresham football coach Wally Weber, football manager Carl Wheeler; Fielding Yost, Athletic Director; and Ben Fineberg, sports editor of the Daily -- would select a winner based on "originality, unnusualness, and aptness."

Intrepidus won LSA junior Donald Rivette a new Chevorlet.

Rivette told the Daily reporter he had scanned the dictionary for inspiration and intrepid (fearless, undaunted, unshaken) caught his eye. The Latin form, he thought, "embodied the ferocity, the fighting spirit of the animal and Michigan's athletic teams."

Intrepidus ("Treppy" as he was affectionately known--if one can be affectionate towards a wolverine) surived at the campus zoo until 1948. Three years later the Daily the Zoology Museum was trying to find a new wolverine.

Copyright ©2002 The Regents of the University of Michigan
Last updated, May 2007
Page created by Greg Kinney, Bentley Historical Library Comments or questions to webmaster

Michigan, Ohio State rivalry: One mascot is iconic, while the other is non-existent

ANN ARBOR, MI - Mascots are part of college football lore, from the Notre Dame Leprechaun to the Stanford Tree to Michigan State’s Sparty.

Among the most iconic mascots is Brutus Buckeye, an anthropomorphic nut from Ohio’s state tree. Brutus has roamed Ohio State’s sideline since 1965, turning from little more than a giant head with legs to a full-sized human with a giant head.

Michigan, meanwhile, has resisted the mascot craze for the better part of the program’s 144-year history.

There have been a number of unofficial mascots in Wolverine history, from live animals to student-run efforts. But the lack of someone in a kid-friendly costume on football Saturdays is part of Michigan’s tradition, said Greg Dooley, who teaches a University of Michigan course on its athletics history.

“I make a list of traditions (and) the only thing (regarding mascots) that’s on there is the fact that we don’t have a mascot,” he said. “That to me is a tradition.”

No. 3 Michigan hosts No. 2 Ohio State on Saturday, Nov. 25, for a Big Ten Championship Game berth, as well as a possible spot in the College Football Playoff. The last few weeks of scandal surrounding Michigan’s alleged sign-stealing adds even more animus to the already angst-filled rivalry.

There are a few theories as to why Michigan chose that nickname, from the state’s fur trading history, to 1800s settlers in the region having “wolverine-like” appetites, to Michiganders having the animal’s “tenacity and strength,” according to the university.

But Wolverines weren’t the live animals highlighted and put on display in the earlier years of the University of Michigan football program.

There was a 1907 husky handled by team captain Paul Magoffin literally named “Mascot.” There was also a white dog shown with Coach Fielding Yost in the 1910 team picture, likely a shot at Notre Dame coach Shorty Longman, who paraded his white dog Mike after the Irish beat the Wolverines for the first time in 1909.

Yost, UM athletic director from 1921-40, continued the live animal trend, however, did bring a trio of real wolverines to the program in the 1920s and ‘30s. He was inspired by the University of Wisconsin’s live badger, Dooley said, so he called for trappers to get wolverines Bennie and Biff to show off at the 1927 Michigan Stadium dedication.

Bennie and Biff, the live wolverine mascots introduced at the 1927 Michigan Stadium dedication. Photo provided by Bentley Historical Library. Bentley Historical Library

“Yost thought it would be a gimmicky, fun idea,” Dooley said. “He was very much into promotion and selling out the Big House.”

But the live animals as mascots posed ethical and safety dilemmas, Dooley said.

“There are certain animals that aren’t really supposed to be in captivity, and a wolverine is absolutely one of them,” he said, adding that handlers had to cage them in thick bars.

“Today, we should feel for the animal and that they are not supposed to be in this tight, confined cage,” he said.

Another live wolverine was donated to the university by the Chevrolet Motor Company in 1937, according to the Bentley Historical Library. A student contest named the animal “Intrepidus,” and it was kept at the now-defunct University of Michigan Zoo.

The discussion died down until a mascot craze in the 1960s and ‘70s, Dooley said, when universities, such as Ohio State introduced Brutus. Former UM athletic director Don Canham did not join this craze.

“He didn’t want gimmicky stuff around the football program,” Dooley said, pointing out that Canham’s merchandising of the athletic department at the time, however, revolutionized athletics revenue around the country.

“He started selling the Block M on everything,” Dooley continued. “That would have been the time where we would introduce a new tradition like a mascot, but he didn’t want to.”

Willy the Wolverine, the short-lived student push for an official University of Michigan mascot in the late 1980s. Photo provided by Bentley Historical Library. Bentley Historical Library

The late 1980s saw the only student-run push for an official mascot with the introduction of Willy the Wolverine. Students Adam Blumenkranz, Eric Lefkofsky and David Kaufman created the design of a bear-wolf mixture with a Block M sweater, according to writer James David Dickson in a 2011 Michigan Today article.

University officials resisted, Dickson wrote, but the students persisted by trademarking Willy and building a costume to bring to football games. But it was 7-feet tall, so it was banned for blocking the view of some fans, Dickson wrote.

Willy also famously drew the ire of NFL Network host Rich Eisen, then the sports editor of the student-run Michigan Daily newspaper. He called Willy “a fuzzball goof” in an editorial.

“What can be more annoying than watching some overgrown ball of fuzz named Willy run around Michigan Stadium, acting like a buffoon,” Eisen wrote.

The university sued Willy’s creators in the early 1990s for using its trademarks, ending the mascot’s short run.

The only other whisper of a Michigan mascot came in 2011. Former athletic director Dave Brandon mentioned the possibility in an online newsletter to alumni, but clarified soon after to MLive/The Ann Arbor News that the department has “many other priorities at the present time.”

“It may never happen,” Brandon emailed.

There will be many Michigan traditions celebrated Saturday in Ann Arbor as Ohio State comes to town -- the winged helmets, touching the banner, no commercials in the stadium.

But there will be just one mascot, and it won’t be donning maize and blue.

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page or sign up for the free “3@3 Ann Arbor” daily newsletter.

The curse was placed upon him by a jealous rival magician who envied Rigoletti's talents. The curse made Rigoletti's magic uncontrollable and unpredictable. At first, the curse seemed negligible as Rigoletti was able to tame it and continue his performances flawlessly.

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But as time went on, he started losing control over his powers. His magic would backfire, causing chaos and destruction wherever he went. Rigoletti tried everything to break the curse but to no avail. He sought the help of fellow magicians, wizards, and even mystics, but none could provide a solution. The curse had become an integral part of Rigoletti's existence, haunting him at every step. As the curse grew stronger, Rigoletti became an outcast in the magical community. People feared him and viewed him as a threat. His once adoring audience now avoided him, terrified of the havoc his magic might unleash. Rigoletti's life turned into a constant struggle as he tried to control his powers. He isolated himself, living in seclusion to prevent any harm that might come to others. Loneliness became his only companion as he grew bitter and resentful. Despite his cursed existence, Rigoletti's love for magic persisted. He continued to practice and perfect his craft, hoping that one day he would find a way to break free from the curse. He dedicated countless hours to studying ancient texts, seeking forbidden knowledge that could hold the key to his redemption. Years passed, and Rigoletti's skills as a magician grew even more astonishing. He became a master of illusion, able to deceive even the most discerning eyes. But behind his dazzling performances, the curse still lurked, waiting to strike at any moment. Rigoletti's story serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of envy and the consequences of unchecked power. It reminds us that even the greatest talents can be marred by the weight of a curse. Throughout his life, Rigoletti's determination never wavered. He refused to let the curse define him, and he continued to embrace his love for magic. Whether he ever succeeded in breaking the curse or not remains a mystery, as Rigoletti's fate is shrouded in uncertainty. But his story lives on as a testament to the indomitable spirit of the human soul..

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