The leprechaun has been the official mascot at the University of Notre Dame since 1965.
For the first time, a woman will serve as one of the school's three leprechauns, the South Bend Tribune reported. Officials with Notre Dame's cheerleading program announced Tuesday that Lynette Wukie, who will be a junior during the 2019-2020 school year, was chosen, along with Samuel Jackson and Conal Fagan, school officials announced in a news release.
The leprechauns cheer at various athletic events at the university.
According to the release, Wukie, of Elyria, Ohio, who was a captain on her cheerleading squad at Midview High School in Grafton, sent a video along with her application and asked the question, "Who says the Fighting Irish can't fight like a girl?"
Wukie is majoring in film, television and theater at Notre Dame, the Tribune reported.
Wukie and Jackson will become the second and third African-American leprechauns in Notre Dame's history, the school said in its release. Mike Brown, a 2001 graduate, was the first, in 1999, became the first African-American leprechaun in 1999, according to NDInsider.
In its release, the school said Jackson was not related to the film actor with the same name.’
Fagan, a native of Derry, Northern Ireland, will return for his second year as one of the school's leprechauns. He became the first native Irishman to win the role, according to the Chicago Tribune.
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