Have you ever noticed that Osky-Wow-Wow does not mention Bearcats?  It was not an oversight.  Selecting a school mascot was one of several tasks put before the student body in 1919 and it proved to be the most difficult.

    The year 1919 was a heady time in De Leon.  Only two years earlier, as the nation entered World War I, a severe drought in north Texas had forced farmers to abandon their land.  Money, as well as consumer goods became very scarce.  Then only a year later, oil was discovered in northern Comanche county and the discovery was quickly followed by the end of the war.

    By the fall of 1919, De Leon was in the greatest period of growth and wealth ever experienced in its history and the disposable income that was nonexistant in 1917, was abundant in 1919.  As the servicemen returned home and oil well after oil well began to come in at the Desdemona field, the boom grew dramatically, peaking in 1920.

   The De Leon school system was one of the beneficiaries of the oil boom.  The enrollment in the high school was the largest to that time, exceeding 200 students, many of them newcomers.

     Among the new students was a girl named Pearl Stern.  Her brother Paul was hired as the new football coach, replacing Lyman Forrest just as the season began.  Paul and Pearl suggested to N.A. Mayo, the school principal, that De Leon adopt some of the traditions of larger schools such as writing a school song, selecting a mascot, publishing an annual, and selecting a cheerleader.

   Mr. Mayo, hoping to promote school spirit, put all those tasks to the student body at daily assembly.  Before long, De Leon had its first cheerleader, an annual staff and a name for the annual.  The school song naturally took longer but was soon selected (see Osky-Wow-Wow).  It was the mascot that proved to be the most perplexing task.  It would not be until the final week of football, just days before the Thanksgiving Day battle with arch rival Comanche, that Bearcats would emerge the winner.

    Again and again in assembly, Mr. Mayo asked for suggestions for the mascot.  Many names were proposed, but none ever had enough support to even be put to a vote.  The suggestions just didn’t seem to fit.  In fact, many of the names suggested were either booed or got a round of laughter when proposed.

     One day, the son a local doctor and a football player, Starr Inzer, suggested the name Bears.  His fellow students razzed him badly because they knew he was a Baylor Bear fan and that he was pushing his Baylor loyalties.

    Inzer was not the only Baylor fan in De Leon, in fact the Bears had a great deal of support, even among the non-Baptist.  At the time, Baylor was the closest Southwest conference school to De Leon (T.C.U did not enter the conference until 1923).  De Leon’s popular graduate and school music teacher, Letha Smith, was also a Baylor graduate.  De Leon’s great football player, B.J. Pittman was entering his freshman year at Baylor and it was expected and indeed happened that his brother Ralph would follow him to Baylor two years later.

     Even though Baylor was popular with many in the student body, they wanted a mascot of their own, not another team’s hand-me-down.  Besides, the students who did not consider Baylor “their” team were not about to allow Inzer to tag De Leon with the name Bears.  So the search continued.

     Starr however, never gave up.  Friends remembered that every time the issue was discussed, Starr could be seen moving his mouth as he worked on the name “bears” thereby drawing the ridicule of his fellow students.  But the ribbing was good natured for Starr Inzer had scored two of the three De Leon touchdowns, in the first of two games played against Comanche in 1919 and the second game was drawing near.

    All too soon, it was Thanksgiving week and time for the rematch with Comanche.  The first game had ended with De Leon walking off the field in protest.  Thanksgiving Day, De Leon would travel to Comanche to settle the issue.  There was to be a bonfire pep rally held for the first time in De Leon memory but there was still no mascot.

    On Monday, Mr. Mayo again raised the question of a name for the team.  The usual murmurs arose as the students chit chatted about a name.  Suddenly, the ever impulsive Starr, jumped up from his seat near the back of the auditorium and shouted “bearcats.”

    There was momentary silence and then the student body erupted into applause and cheering.  A vote was never taken, the decision had been made.  De Leon had a mascot for what would perhaps be one of the more important games played against Comanche to that time.    De Leon High School won its first game as Bearcats 14-13 claiming its third county championship in a row from the hated Indians.

     You have to wonder why the name Bearcat was so quickly and warmly received, especially when bears had been rejected.

    In May of 1918, Michael Benedum, a partner in the oil firm of Benedum-Trees, sent his driller, Pete Hoffman to De Leon to begin drilling the Duke well.  The Duke would come in as a gusher on September 2, 1918 thereby launching the Desdemona oil boom.  But in May of 1918, there was little more to Desdemona than there is now.  The drilling crew operated out of the Lambert Hotel in De Leon, located where Comanche County Tractor is today.

     Pete Hoffman had been Benedum’s chief driller for years.  He had brought in wells for Benedun-Trees near Robinson, Illinois the previous home of Paul Stern, De Leon’s coach.  Hoffman was a big, very strong, jovial, red headed Irish type who soon came to be know as “Pennsylvania Red” among the many friends he made in De Leon.

     When Hoffman arrived on the train, among the things he brought with him was his automobile.  This car was a sporty, dark red model and it quickly attracted the town’s attention.  At the time there were a limited number of cars in Comanche county and a crowd gathered at the tracks as the vehicle was unloaded from the flatcar.  It didn’t take long before the young men of the town began to gather around the vehicle.  In fact it almost always drew a crowd whenever it was parked in front of the Lambert Hotel.

     On many occasions, Red would give a ride to some of the teenagers, developing a warm relationship not only with the kids but also with other people in De Leon.  For the boys, it was the ultimate experience to get a ride in that car or perhaps more importantly just to be seen riding in it.  If he wasn’t headed for the well, Hoffman turned down few request for rides.  The kids in town developed a great admiration for that car and deep respect for its owner, Pete Hoffman.

  That car was the sportiest car in America at the time.  It was an almost maroon, Stutz Bearcat.  And now you know the rest of the story.

A 1916 Stutz Bearcat in the museum at the Indianapolis Speedway.