History of the Bearcats

The Cincinnati Bearcats are the athletic teams that represent the University of Cincinnati. Though they will move to the Big 12 Conference (XII) the teams are currently a part of the American Athletic Conference (The American), which from 1979 to 2013 was known as the Big East Conference. Cincinnati and Wichita State University are currently the only members of The American that are located in the Midwestern United States; all other members are in the Northeast or South.

In September 2021, Cincinnati received and accepted a membership offer to the Big 12 Conference. They will join the conference no later than 2024–25.

The Bearcats were previously members of Conference USA, of which they were a founding member. The creation of Conference USA in 1995 was the result of a merger between the Great Midwest Conference (of which Cincinnati was a member) and the Metro Conference (to whom Cincinnati had previously been a member). Other collegiate athletic conferences of which the school has been a member include the Missouri Valley Conference, 1957–1969; the Mid-American Conference, 1947–1952; the Buckeye Athletic Association, 1925–1935; and the Ohio Athletic Conference, 1910–1924.

Cincinnati's men's basketball squads have been a perennial bracket team in the NCAA tournament. A prolific era in Bearcats the basketball was during the late 1950s and early 1960s when the Bearcats posted five consecutive Final Four appearances. Unanimous three-time All-American guard Oscar Robertson led the nation in scoring during the 1957–58, 1958–59, and 1959–60 seasons and posted a career average of 33.8 points per game, which ranks as the third all-time best in Division I.

Cincinnati won two national championships in 1961 and 1962. The 1961 and 1962 titles were won under rookie coach Ed Jucker.

College Sports Established
1910

Location
Cincinnati, Ohio

College Name
University of Cincinnati

Collegiate History
1973 - Present / NCAA Division 1
1921 - 1973 / University Division of the NCAA
1910 - 1921 / Athletic Association of the United States

Conference History
2013 - Present / American Athletic Conference
2005 - 2013 / Big East Conference
1995 - 2005 / Conference USA
1991 - 1995 / Great Midwest Conference
1975 - 1991 / Metro Conference
1957 - 1969 / Missouri Valley Conference
1947 - 1952 / Mid-American Conference
1925 - 1935 / Buckeye Athletic Association
1910 - 1924 / Ohio Athletic Conference

Nickname
Bearcats - The Bearcat became the UC mascot on October 31, 1914, in a football game against the UK Wildcats. The key players in the birth of the Bearcat were a star UC player named Baehr, a creative cheerleader, and a talented cartoonist. During the second half of that hard-fought football game, UC cheerleader Norman "Pat" Lyon, building on the efforts of fullback Leonard K. "Teddy" Baehr, created the chant: "They may be Wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side." The crowd took up the cry: "Come on, Baehr-cat!" Cincinnati prevailed, 14–7, and the victory was memorialized in a cartoon published on the front page of the student newspaper, the weekly University News, on November 3. The cartoon, by John "Paddy" Reece, depicted a bedraggled Kentucky Wildcat being chased by a creature labeled "Cincinnati Bear Cat."

The name stuck, but not immediately. Following Teddy Baehr's graduation in 1916, the name dropped out of use, at least in print, for a few years. On November 15, 1919, Cincinnati played at Tennessee. The Cincinnati Enquirer writer Jack Ryder's dispatch on the game was the first time that the major media called UC's teams "Bearcats." From then on, the university's teams were regularly called Bearcats.

NCAA Championships
Baseball 0

Men's Basketball 2
1962, 1962

Women's Basketball 0

Football 0

Soccer 0