Beech Tree News Network

I’ve restrained from writing columns through a UK National Title, an interesting NFL season, and a tumultuous college football offseason, but I can hold back no more.
What has moved me to put fingers to keys again? Is it Kentucky’s new football coach? Nope, he’s a big get for the Cats, but I’m not ready to write about him yet.
A possible NBA return for 50-year-old Michael Jordan? Nope. Nothing Jordan does surprises me.
Could it be Lance Armstrong finally admitting he was doping the entire time he was becoming an American hero. Nope, this is old news. We all knew what he was doing, we just refused to accept it.
It’s not of those things, nor is it a thousand more sports stories that could have me fuming. Instead it’s Danica Patrick and the mysterious Bearcat that have me at the keyboard on a Sunday evening.

First to Danica, more on the Bearcat later.
Mercifully, Speedweeks at Danica-tona are over. Just in time too. If I had of had to listen to one more interview with NASCAR’s new first lady I might have keeled over and convulsed. Of course it’s not really her fault. Blame her team for building her a pole-winning car, and blame the racing media for forgetting the rest of the drivers and teams at Daytona. Still, I will admit her top-ten finish was more impressive than her top starting spot.
Mercifully for Danica spring race week at Phoenix is over as well. For her it served as the wake-up call a lot of folks were expecting her to receive. Danica didn’t follow up on her Daytona success. Instead she lost the handle on a fussy race car, pounded the retaining wall at Phoenix International Raceway, and exited before halfway of Sunday’s race. Now she’s mired mid-pack in the points, and once again looks very much like the rookie she is, yellow bumper stripe and all.
I’ve been labeled a Danica-basher and that’s not true. I simply point out facts and let others decide about NASCAR’s most successful female driver.
Fact, she’s never won a race in NASCAR’s top division, and prior to Daytona she had failed to even be a factor at the end of most of her starts.
Fact, she did finish in the top ten of points for the Nationwide Series, but those points are diluted because Cup regulars receive no points from the series when they race. Figure all those Cup guys into the points mix and Danica was far outside the top ten last year.
Fact, she freely admits she still struggling to adapt to the bigger, heavier NASCAR stock car. Her Indy Car rides were built to be the most nimble and maneuverable machines in the world of racing. NASCAR rides are built around big engines, and car control rests in the hands and arms of the drivers and not within a computer tucked away on the team’s pit box.
I could go on but I don’t want to bash.
Instead I’ll mention some things that Danica has done right so far in 2013.
She doesn’t ‘horse’ the car around as much as she did last year. In 2012 she had numerous crashes because she tried to force the car to handle. So far this year she gives feedback and lets the team adjust.
Which brings me to my second point, she’s learning to ‘listen’ to the car. Her team says she won the pole not because they built a perfect car, but because she helped them get it perfect in practice.
Her pit stops have been great, almost flawless. Pitting a big car is said to be one of the hardest adjustments open wheel drivers make when they go into stock cars. Patrick struggled last year, but she’s obviously worked hard because she consistently has made up track positions in the pits over the first two races.
Finally, she seems more serious. In her early forays into NASCAR Ms. Patrick seemed to be a little taken aback by the enormousness of the world she was entering. I often thought that in the days leading up to a race she seemed a little bit over awed and star struck by the entire thing.
This year it’s different. Even in the middle of the media circus that is Daytona her focus always seemed to be on the car and the race.
I’m by no means jumping on her bandwagon, but I have to admit I’m noticing progress for Danica Patrick. As for setting up the victory party and getting ready to pay off my tattoo bet, I’m not quite ready for that yet, but I’m no longer convinced it will never happen.

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Now on to the Bearcat. What is a Bearcat? That seems to be a hot question right now in Morgantown. BeechTree News and 1570 AM WLBQ have received numerous calls this week from Butler Countians curious about something called a Bearcat. This prompted BTN to do some research into the Bearcat and any possible connection to Butler County.

A quick check of Google revealed that the bearcat is actually not a bear or a cat, but is a small nocturnal mammal native to Southeast Asia and some Pacific islands. Binturongs, the bearcats proper name, are roughly the size of a small dog and live in the dense jungle canopy common to Southeast Asia. The reason for the name ‘bearcat’ is lost to history because the language of the people that originally named the animal is now extinct. Scientists who study the mammal suggest that the name could come from the ferocity the animal can display when defending territory—likened by many to be as ferocious as bears, or for the high-pitched, wailing cry that resembles the cry of a distressed cat.

With no jungle canopy in Butler County we quickly decided this wasn’t the bearcat in question.

Digging deeper led the BTN investigators to the website of the Grumman Aircraft Company. Grumman introduced a fighter plane dubbed the F-8 Bearcat shortly after the close of WWII. The fighter holds the distinction of being the last piston-engine fighter plane ordered by the United States Navy. It was designed to have a high climb rate and top speed to combat the infamous Japanese Mitsubishi Zero fighter. Officials at Grumman are confident none of their F-8s are menacing Butler County as the last of the planes left service in the 1960’s. They did however suggest that some of the planes can still be found in airshows and airplane races.

It seems that one popular Bearcat is the automobile of the same name manufactured by the Stutz Motor Company of Indianapolis, Indiana. The car was basically a production model of the car Harry Stutz entered in the 1911 Indianapolis 500. The car finished 11th in the event. In the event you spot one of these Bearcats in the wild it should be captured immediately. A recent auction for a 1914 Stutz Bearcat fetched $1.32-million dollars, making it a worthy trophy for the lucky Butler County hunter.

The Stutz Bearcat was the inspiration of a short-lived CBS TV series from the early 1970’s entitled BEARCATS! The show was set in the American West around 1915. The show’s heroes gallivanted about in a Stutz Bearcat foiling schemes ranging from cattle thefts to German spies trying to drag the USA and Mexico into a war. The show aired opposite the FLIP WILSON SHOW on NBC, and the more traditional western show ALIAS SMITH AND JONES on ABC. The show suffered from low ratings and was cancelled at midseason. The show is notable only because its cancellation marked the last time that two TV westerns were aired at the same time on US TV. A check of an online synopsis of the program’s episodes confirmed that none were set in Butler County, Kentucky.

Further checking on the bearcat led BTN to some more references for the creature and name, but none with a Butler County connection. The Uniden Company markets a popular brand of radio scanners called Bearcat, and while they are popular items for some Butler Countians, there was still no rock-solid connection to the county.

The Bearcat is also the official mascot of several colleges, including Brescia College in Kentucky and the University of Cincinnati, but aside from an occasional student attending one of the schools no tie to Butler County exists there either.

It was suggested to us that BCHS could be changing their mascot to Bearcats from their present mascot the Bears. A call to Butler County High School was placed, but according to their staff there are no plans to change the mascot at this time. Another theory for the origin of the Bearcat rumor is that the high schools from Butler and Edmonson Counties could be merging, with a hybrid of their two mascots—the Bear and the Wildcat—being a Bearcat. Officials have denied any plans to merge the schools.

Having struck out on all our attempts to discover the infamous Butler County Bearcat we enlisted the aid of BTN’s resident expert on the paranormal, Jeremy Hack. Hack has experience with ghost-hunting and is interested in all things strange and unknown. According to Hack the Butler County Bearcat has never been photographed or captured on film. In fact, Hack had never heard of the creature until asked about it this week.

“Usually with this sort of thing there is at least some shaky video footage or blurry photograph to go on, but not in this case,” said Hack. “If I had to give my professional opinion on this matter, I would say that it’s probably a hoax, or the product of an over-active imagination."

Our investigation ended with the last of our leads. Sadly we know little more about the Butler County Bearcat than we did when we began our queries. Jeremy Hack has promised to continue digging into the mystery of the bearcat, and will report any more findings if/when they are available.

“I don’t know if there is a Butler County Bearcat,” said Hack, “but if I could capture one alive I’m sure it would be headline-making news.”