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Catamount Club

Catamount Club Stories

The Catamount Club Blog is designed as a place to share stories about our incredible student-athletes, alumni and donors who are making a difference in their lives. We also update members on the details of our upcoming events through our blog.

Paws Porch

(Purple and) Golden Anniversary

Long gone are the days when Baxter Wood ’58 MAEd ’63, former director of A.K. Hinds University Center, hauled members of Western Carolina University’s men’s basketball team to away games in his new 1958 Chrysler New Yorker or when community members took out personal loans to field the football team, repaid with gate receipts at the end of the season.  

WCU Alumni Keion Crossen

Journey of Former WCU Standout Keion Crossen Continues with Trip to 2019 Super Bowl

As he came down from the stage and onto the floor Monday (Jan. 28) at Atlanta’s State Farm Arena for the New England Patriots’ portion of the 2019 Super Bowl’s Opening Night, former Western Carolina University defensive back Keion Crossen was all smiles. And why wouldn’t he be? This time last year, few people outside of his hometown of Garysburg and Cullowhee knew who Crossen was. The former Catamount wasn’t even invited to the NFL combine prior to last April’s NFL draft.  

WCU Alumni Mike Wade

Former Football Academic All-American Honors Mother, Stepmom with Gifts to Athletics, the Arts

Mike Wade, a former two-time Academic All-American at Western Carolina University, will tell you that football is the greatest metaphor for life: to survive you have to get back up every time you get knocked down — and you will get knocked down, he insists, many, many times. Wade did excel, so much so that he recently made a $1 million planned gift to support WCU’s athletics and arts scholarships and programs — one of the largest gifts given to the Catamount athletics program and one of the largest gifts ever by a former student-athlete.  

Soccer Alumni

Soccer Lovers Keep Kickin’ Long After Game is Over

It’s for the love of the game that former members of WCU’s men’s soccer team keep coming back to campus to see former teammates, play a little soccer and raise money for the WCU soccer program.   

Sigma Kappa Greek Challenge

Love for Cats keep Greeks coming back

It’s a family affair during WCU’s Greek Challenge each fall, when fraternities and sororities past and present compete to raise money for Catamount athletics. While the competition is a win for all student-athletes, only one fraternity and one sorority get to claim bragging rights when the fundraising totals are announced during Homecoming.  

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