The crowd cheers as he walks onto the field.

He does his best to entertain it, and he succeeds. The fans love him, and they shout at the top of their lungs to show it.

He is Chris Holden, and he has played Wilbur the Wildcat for the past 41/2 years. Playing Wilbur is a volunteer position. Until this year, when a past Wilbur set up a small scholarship fund, Holden received no financial gain from his role, just personal satisfaction.

"There's no way to describe walking out there and knowing everyone is watching you," said Holden, an interdisciplinary studies senior.

Secrets, secrets and more secrets. That's what Holden has been dealing with as he plays Wilbur. The student behind the mask is always kept secret to add mystery and a carefree attitude to the role.

"You can't keep it from your roommates, and you have to tell your parents. It's the only club where there is basically one member, and you want them to know it is you out there," he said.

"It is also really hard to keep it from my friends and fraternity brothers, because I am so close to them," said Holden, a member of Beta Theta Pi.

He said it is awkward when people ask him if he is Wilbur, because he doesn't want to lie. He usually admits it to close friends, but tells them to keep quiet. He might tell a classmate it isn't him.

Holden is graduating in May with a major in communications, journalism and media arts. He is an intern at KOLD Channel 13, and hopes to be a sports anchor. Holden would like to stay in Tucson because he is familiar with the teams and the atmosphere, and because "it's a good place to start."

Although Wilbur seems like a one-man job, there are always two men playing Wilbur, with one performing at a majority of football and basketball games. This was the first year Holden got the lead spot, but both always split the charity events Wilbur attended, such as the Cedric Dempsey Cancer Run and Pause For Reading, a program where athletes discuss reading to elementary school students.

"The best thing (about the role) is the kids. They always want to hug me and sit on my lap. I'm a role model for them and I don't even speak," Holden said.

Wilbur may not speak, but he can do one-handed push-ups. As football fans know, when the Wildcats score at a game, Wilbur is raised up on a board to do a push-up for every point the team has. Potential Wilburs are required to show that they can do push-ups at auditions. Holden said that doing the push-ups on that board for the first time was "the most amazing rush."

"You have to be in great physical shape (to play Wilbur). The team sometimes scores 45 points and over in one game. That means that you have to do seven, and then 14, and so on. That adds up to a lot of push-ups," Holden said.

"At one game, we had 33 points. On the 31st push-up, my elbow popped, and it did it again on 32. The back of my arm gave out, and I had a slight tear in my tricep. I fell onto the board, and I wasn't able to do the last one. I was in such pain, and I felt so horrible. It was my worst experience."

Holden said he never has a set plan of what he is going to do when a game starts. He likes to go out and feed off of the crowd and the game. He likes the fact that nobody knows who he is when he goes out on to the field or the court.

"I can do whatever I want, and nobody cares what I do. A really neat thing is going up to people I know and messing with them, and then asking them on Monday how the game was. They always tell me how Wilbur came up to them, and how fun it was," Holden said.

There are times when Wilbur has a crisis.

Since there are two people playing Wilbur, sometimes Holden shows up at a game missing parts of the uniform, such as a jersey. He either has to make do or try to find the lost article. At one football game, a man pulled Wilbur's hat off as he crowd-surfed. Holden was unable to put it back on, so he spent the rest of the evening bald.

At each basketball game, Wilbur uses a slingshot to toss T-shirts into the stands when the team scores a 3-pointer. During January's match against UCLA, there was a new cheerleader that Holden had never worked with, and every shot bombed out and fell into the first row.

The next day, there was an Arizona Republic story about the game in which the first couple of paragraphs said that Wilbur couldn't shoot to save his life. Holden said his dad showed it to him, and it was an embarrassing experience, even though nobody knew it was him.

Wilbur is at every home football and basketball game, as well as local away games. He receives a dean's excuse, just like the players, when he has to go out of town, such as last week when he traveled to Denver for the NCAA playoffs.

"There are some perks to the position, but I think that there's no other club or organization on campus where you experience what the university is about," Holden said.

"I am not just a symbol here, but Wilbur is almost a symbol of the U of A around the nation. I am an ambassador to the school, and I have to hold myself in the highest standards because someone is always looking at me," he said.

Holden tried out for the part because a resident assistant told him he should. He wanted to be a mascot in high school, but couldn't, and decided being Wilbur would be great.

He also thought it would be a good way to get involved, because he wanted to "make a mark on campus."

The application process involves answering questions about experience with kids and ways to portray the Wilbur persona. Interviews are held with faculty members and the previous Wilbur. Four applicants are chosen to spend 10 minutes in the suit at a basketball game, and then Wilbur is selected.

Holden said that when playing Wilbur, there is no peripheral vision, and that with the mesh on the suit, it is hard to see what is going on, especially in the aisles and stands at games.

A Wilbur suit was stolen last week out of a washing machine in a residence hall, but the theft did not occur while the suit was in Holden's possession.

"In the suit, it is very hot, very sweaty, and it is a lot of fun," he said.

Oh, and yes, he washes the suit himself.