Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

What would Cat Baby say?

Posted on August 30, 2007August 30, 2007 by Staff


A 26-year-old George “Cat Baby” Cannada leads the CHHS football team onto Carrboro’s Lions’ Park field in 1963. Photo by Jock Lauterer 

By Jock Lauterer

Cat Baby would have loved the return of high school football to Carrboro.

That’s right, Friday night’s inaugural football game at the new Carrboro High School off Smith Level Road was not the first high school football game played in Carrboro.

Not by a long shot. Back in my day, the downtown Chapel Hill High School, located at the site of today’s University Square, had no football field of its own. We had to truck across town to venerable old Lions’ Park off Fidelity Street in Carrboro for our “home” games.

An apartment complex now occupies the site of that Spartan athletic venue, as I remember it: a humble field and simple bleachers ringed by a corregated iron fence.

But it was home to the Wildcats, and, to return to the theme, “Cat Baby” — the ubiquitous town character, unquenchable Chapel Hill High School sports fan and veteran newspaper boy, George Cannada.

Cat Baby may not have been the brightest bulb in the box, but what he lacked in mental firepower he made up for with loyalty, steadfastness and his own brand of humor.

How Cat Baby got his handle, you’d have to ask local historian extraordinaire Bland Simpson to be sure. Maybe it had to do with the ‘50s pop expression of “cool cat.” Or maybe it came from the Wildcats’ team name, shortened to “Cats.” And since George was the quintessential CHHS fan, perhaps it was he who made the linguistic leap. He said “Cat Baby” all the time, so that’s what we called him.

Who really knows? What every Chapel Hill High School kid from our era does know is that the sound of Caaaaaaaaaaat! could only come from one person.

And that evolved into Caaaaaaaat Baaabbeeeee!

And then, Whattaya say, Cat Baby!

This eponymous greeting was invariably issued from a generous mouth half-filled with “chawin” tobacco or a cigar, and a merry look on the big man’s face.

If you saw the ad from Cliff’s Meat Market and Fortress Fencing on page 4 of last week’s CHS special section, either you “got” that message, or perhaps you’re just now beginning to understand why a simple paperboy could become a local legend.

(Check out Cat Baby’s framed photo hanging over the bar at the Carolina Coffee Shop). Or ask Chapel Hill natives of a certain age to regale you with a Cat Baby story; I think we all have at least one.

In any event, before he died at age 58 in 1993, George Cannada left his indelible mark on this community.

For now, we’ll stick to the high school football theme, because that’s the subject of the week: How Cat Baby would have loved a new high school in his hometown of Carrboro!

Back in the early ‘60s, we Chapel Hill Wildcats had no real mascot, no live growling wildcat on a chain nor any furry foamy critter look-alike prancing around the sidelines. The fact is, we didn’t need a mascot like that.

We had Cat Baby!

And Cat Baby’s crowning moment of joy, a ritual that would send us students into paroxysms of laughter and glee, would occur at the opening of every football game.

You know the drill: the band plays the fight song; the team bursts onto the field, fronted by the cheerleaders…

But all this must be led by the team’s mascot. UNC has Rameses.

Dook has its Blue Devil. But for CHHS, we had, you guessed it, CAT BABY.

Running for all he was worth, head thrown back, generous button-busting stomach stuck out like a ship’s prow carving the waters, arms and legs pumping like pistons, running out in front of his team. What a sight.

I wonder if I wasn’t the only old poop out there at Friday’s night football game at the new Carrboro High School imagining that I could see the merry ghost of George Cannada leading the way as the Jaguars took the field. Maybe a new generation will pick up his salutation for a school cheer.

Whaaaaddddaaaya Saaaay Caaaaaaaat Baaaaaaabbbbby!

21 thoughts on “What would Cat Baby say?”

  1. dennis melton says:
    September 12, 2007 at 4:31 am

    reading this made me scream [guess what!!] and cry at the same time!!!
    Although I wasnt a bone-i-fide local to CHill cause I moved there in ’64, those two CHHS years were my salad days. I discovered girls and Bert Humphreys in the same year!

    thanks Bert for this link and all you do to keep the Wildcat spirit alive!

  2. David Ripperton says:
    September 12, 2007 at 9:20 am

    Cat is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. There was a good article about him in the Chapel Hill Newspaper in 2002. You can access it from their website.

    “People of my generation who have been around here a long time, it’s very common if we haven’t seen each other in a while and we meet at a party, to say, ‘Whaddaya say, cat?” (Bland) Simpson said. “He gave us an extremely useful shorthand way of recognizing each other.”

    We hear you Cat.

  3. Richard Gunter says:
    September 12, 2007 at 9:21 am

    This is a great article. I brings back fond memories of football and baseball in the Lion’s Park, along with our days and years with “Cat Babe-ehh”.

    George “graduated” from CHHS in my class in 1956 at the age of 21. Gene Smith and I, having been fellow paper boys with him in the early years, were particularly fond of his un-erring honesty and witty candor.

    The origin of the BABY, pronounced Babeh as in “babe- ehh” came from Robert “Bob” Rosenbacher, owner of the Hub Clothing store in Chapel Hill.

    One day George, who went by the store daily with his “Wha say caaat?” to Bob, was answered with a simple “Caat Babehhh”. From then on George included the “babehh” in his vocabulary.

  4. Patrick Burns says:
    September 12, 2007 at 6:25 pm

    Ah yes! I remember “CAT-BABY” well-Along with Richard Gunter and Gene Smith,el al, we “followered “CAT-BABY”on to the football field every home game -and a few away games too.
    I remember George from grammer grades and as a paper-boy myself.He was always good for a laugh.– May he rest in Peace-great article-tks

  5. Eddie Sparrow says:
    September 12, 2007 at 6:39 pm

    I hope that readers and “catbabyphiles” like myself will find it heartening to note that the spirited and altruistic influences of George “Cat Baby” Cannada were happily embraced and absorbed by generations of Chapel Hill/Carrboro-ians extending far beyond those lucky enough to have “served” with him amidst the hallowed halls of Chapel Hill High.

    Having not entered the world of the living until 1961, I was nevertheless greatly enthralled in my early years by the sound of those words: “whatdaya say caaat” bellowing forcefully, yet at the same time warmly and invitingly from the mouth of Cat Baby whenever I found myself anywhere in the vicinity of downtown Chapel Hill or Carrboro. Though to our benefit he was relegated to the local community, I was convinced that he must be omnipresent. It simply seemed like no matter where I went, there he was.

    As the youngest of six boys, I knew that I was merely another in a long line of locals struck by the bolt of charm, humor, exuberance and vivacity that was Cat Baby.

    It’s articles like this that in some ways make me feel old (though not remorsefully), and in other ways actually make me feel young (happily)! However his presence was felt among many much younger than myself. I got such a kick out of seeing some young buck UNC freshman holler “whatdaya say cat?!” to Cat Baby around University Square on his way to Granville Towers. And I feel secure in the belief that George Cannada’s legacy will prevail over generations of university classmen to come. In my opinion, the local, lovable character that was Cat Baby helped to bridge town and gown.

    Failingly, throughout my twenties and into my thirties Cat Baby made his voice heard. I’ll never forget the day I sat down next to him on the wall bordering campus across Franklin Street from the old post office and just talked to him about everything; and about nothing at all. The bellowing voice I had heard seemingly every day of my life took on a new tone that day. And it was then that I realized there was much more to George Cannada than just Cat Baby. It occurred to me that I was speaking to a true part of the very heart and history of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

    Usually a person is lionized due to his charitable donations or his success in business or because he is socially influencial. It warms my heart to know that a man can be venerated merely on the basis of his kindness to others and his boundless spirit amongst his breathren. Few if any have achieved this level of posterity in our community as George Cannada.

    And he did it all without having to buy his name on a building.

    Long live Cat Baby.

  6. Sandy Patterson says:
    September 13, 2007 at 2:00 am

    Does this ever bring back great memories of growing up in Carrboro and the name “Catbaby”. I’m smileing with tears in my eyes.

  7. Sandy Patterson says:
    September 13, 2007 at 2:09 am

    I mis spelled smiling…….

  8. Milburn Gibbs says:
    September 13, 2007 at 2:40 am

    Jock,

    I agree – George was the legend whose only sin was unbridled enthusiasm. I understand his wife was killed when a trash truck backed over her. George was one-of-a-kind. He gave everything he had at all times. I am proud you honored him. George was local, local and local, as a very bright professor once told me was highly desirable.

  9. Bob Rasmussen says:
    September 13, 2007 at 6:47 am

    Though I moved from Chapel Hill to New Orleans almost 42 years ago, the Wildcats and North Carolina will always be in my blood. I remember following “Big George” onto the field on Friday nights. Cat Baby was one in a million. I always smile when I think about Willie Harrell hiding “Big George’s” bike when it was parked in front of Sloan’s drug store. Cat Baby would be inside taking with Moose and Larry Crane. Remember those two characters. They made the best grilled cheese sandwichs and vanilla cokes in the world.

  10. Bonnie Melton says:
    September 13, 2007 at 2:47 pm

    Widen the circle a little bit. Being younger than my brother Dennis Melton by 8 years I would have encountered a different Cat Baby, this one tooling around on his bike, willing and ready to exchange the salutation with anyone who would speak it to him. The CHHS I attended was now on Homestead Road, then so out of the center of town, surrounded by woods. He may have been at those games, I think I remember him there some, but my other memory of him was downtown, the other end of Franklin St than Sloan Drugs, around the Diary Bar, the Record Bar, riding along the sidewalk on his bike on that gritty Orange County pebbly gravely mix that used to make up so many walkways or near walkways in CH in the early 70s. I do remember that he was always willing, available, to share the salutation but it was never something that was forced upon one, or intrusive. It was there if you wanted it.

    Fast forward 15 years to the mid 80s. I was then living in Philadelphia as was another now departed, sweet Chapel Hillian named Robin Clark. Robin had lived on Rosemary Street in his formative years and easily greeted me or regaled me with “Whaaaddddya say Caaaaat” when we would visit together in Philadelphia, glee in his eyes, comfort to both of us, the 2 CH expatriates, comforted together by that piece of home.

  11. Robert Humphreys says:
    September 13, 2007 at 7:14 pm

    At his funeral, the preacher said it best, that Big George was a simple man that reminded all of us what is really important in life. Thanks, Jock, for refreshing that memory for us and for trying to share Cat’s message with those that never knew him. My first memory is him riding us, squealing little kids, in that enormous bike basket that he used to deliver papers. Years later, my own sons knew him and appreciated his enjoyment of life. In the words of CatBaby, himself: “CatBaby, don’t need no ticket, Cat!” and “Cat, I got to be here all day.” Thanks, George.

  12. Tony Bowman says:
    September 14, 2007 at 6:09 am

    Great article Jock!
    Cat Baby was something else man, and what a legacy.
    I would, however, like to offer what I do believe is the correct spelling of that infectious salutation. ( ya’ll be cool, this is just for fun…)
    It is not whaddyasay cat!, or whadjyasay cat!, or whaddayasay cat!, or even whattayasay caaaat!.
    The first two versions are past tense (what did you say, cat?) And while the second two phrases are the correct tense ( what do you say, cat!), they are way too encumbered with consonants, too proper, etc. There is an old Trolls beer cup (32oz.) that actually has the correct spelling written right there on it. I’ve got two of ’em.
    So anyway here goes,
    George, when promted, used to take that stub of a cigar out of his mouth and yell ” WAYASAY CAAAT!!!”
    (Whayasay Caaat! is also acceptable, its the Trolls version)
    Indeed, Thank ye Caaaaat!

  13. Armand Lenchek says:
    September 16, 2007 at 12:47 pm

    One of the cool things about being a “late-comer” to Chapel Hill (been here only since ’82) is discovering all the cool, old mysterious history around here. Great article.

  14. Jim Greenlee says:
    September 17, 2007 at 6:50 am

    Appreciated so much the Cat-Baby article! As a member of Carrboro Baptist Church in those days, I remember Cat being the unofficial “greeter” on Sunday mornings. He would stand holding the door open and with a big cigar in his mouth, would welcome all to church! He had Sunday School Perfect Attendance pins hanging from his suit lapel indicating decades of perfect attendance. I once went to his house on Center St. to teach him the Sunday School lesson when he was ill, so he could keep his streak going. I also participated in his funeral and burial at Old Chapel Hill cemetery in 1993.

  15. Graham Burch says:
    September 17, 2007 at 5:46 pm

    What great memories….Cat is just one of the many characters that made growing up in Chapel Hill in the 60’s magical.

  16. Hugh Taylor says:
    September 18, 2007 at 5:30 pm

    Very meaty stuff . . . . It sure brings back thoughts of those autumn nights at that field, not to mention the man himself . . .Thanks to David Perlmutt for turning me onto this article and thanks to all for the comments…

    Chapel Hill ex-pat, Hugh Taylor

  17. Ann Clark Harvel says:
    September 19, 2007 at 4:44 am

    WOW – what a great article! The author of this article mentioned that there was no mascot for CHHS but there was. Not a mascot dressed up in costume but a real live person. I had the honor of being the mascot for 3 years in the mid fifties. Both of my brothers were in CHHS at the time. There was a stuffed “wildcat” that I still have to this day.

    At any rate, a football game would not of been right without Cat Baby there! I saw him many times run out on the field in front of the team. By the time I got to CHHS there was not more Cat Baby running the team and there seemed to always be something missing. He is truly a Chapel Hill Legend!

    Ann

  18. Tim Riggsbee says:
    September 19, 2007 at 7:29 am

    I have too many memories of “The Cat” to share them all, but one was the summer of 64 when Duce and I had dates with two girls who were at cheerleader camp at UNC. We had borrowed Duce’s brother new convertible. When we picked up our dates and walked back to the car….(Top down) none other than “Catbaby” was sitting in the backseat and he decided he would spend the evening with us…..Needless to say the girls enjoyed his company much more than ours.

  19. Pingback: The Carrboro Citizen
  20. Wayne Godfrey says:
    August 26, 2009 at 11:04 am

    I remember growing up on Oak Avenue in Carrboro when Catbaby lived across ed the street from us. He told us so many stories I just wished someone had wrote them down. I don’t think aany man has ever been so loved by his neighbor and town as Catbaby. George learned from (I assume)my Father that I was shipping off to VietNam and he had to make sure that he came by to see me off. The town lost so much when George passed away but through websites like this he will live on.

  21. Dale Poole says:
    December 8, 2010 at 10:43 am

    I feel lucky to be able to call George my friend. I met him at Kirpatrick’s Bar and over time became to know him. One fond memory is that how proud he was of those sunday school perfect attendance pins he had on his suit jacket which, of course, indicated many, many years of perfect attendance. I miss you Ca-a-a-t!

    My kids are now at Carrboro High School and I proudly attended that first CHS football game. Great article Jock – thanks for the memories. – Dale

Comments are closed.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme