Why are so many schools' mascot the wildcats?

[Twin Beadles]

I know of at least 9 d1 colleges, countless high schools middle schools aau teams travel baseball etc with this masco

[cos88]

http://s29.postimg.org/h6f6jevmf/if_a_vampire_bites_a_zombie.jpg (http://postimage.org/)

[bdreason]

My high school was the Wildcats. My College was the Wildcats. And the HS Basketball team I coach now are the Wildcats.

[BoogieWoogieMan]

http://memecrunch.com/meme/GS60/who-are-we-the-wildcats/image.png

[Rake2204]

I think it's one of those safe names; it has no real affiliation to any group of people (Redskins, Trojans) while still maintaining a sense of aggressiveness and intimidation. According to an unsubstantiated list though (http://highschoolnicknames.homestead.com/common.html), Wildcats is around fifth in terms of high school popularity, behind Eagles, Tigers, Panthers, and Bulldogs. I can vie for Panthers, as three schools in a neighboring conference of mine all held that moniker.

I tend to prefer the less common names. Michigan has some good ones, like the Jungaleers, Technicians, and Flying G's. Even my brother's is kind of unique (Dreadnaughts).