Since 1965, a leprechaun mascot has walked the sidelines supporting the Fighting Irish athletics teams at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. This year, for the first time in university history, a woman is one of the three leprechaun mascots.
Lynnette Wukie will share mascot duties with Conal Fagan, the first native Irish person to serve as Notre Dame’s mascot, and Samuel Jackson, a senior. Jackson and Wukie are the second and third African Americans to serve as leprechaun mascots. The first African American leprechaun, Mike Brown, is a 2001 graduate of Notre Dame.
Wukie is a junior majoring in film, television and theatre at Notre Dame. She was a captain of her cheerleading and dance teams at Midview High School in Grafton, Ohio.
In her application to become the leprechaun mascot at the University of Notre Dame, Wukie states “Who says the Fighting Irish can’t fight like a girl?”