The Wildcat Formation
October 1, 2009
There has been a lot of talk about some of the unusual formations in college football. The "Wildcat" is pretty popular these days, with a running back taking a direct snap.
It actually all got started years ago at a small school, Texas Western at Texarkana. They had a small enrollment and actually had some women on the team. In fact TW-T had quite a snapper. And their halfback who took the snaps, Marion, wasn't half-bad either.
Their offense chalked up a lot of yards and the idea caught on and they started calling the offense the "Cougar". That animal nickname eventually inspired the nickname given to the Wildcat offense.
After her college football career Marion moved on into academia. Two decades later, she starred in a documentary about a small college where her husband was dean. She was quite popular among the guys at the Delta fraternity house, who started referring to her as the "Cougar". And that's why young women in their 40's even today are known as Cougars.