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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1984)
Thursday, March 8, 1984/The Battalion/Page 3 2Aggies to spend time on the rood os Olympic Eagle Sam urroundii! the govert state nents pm e belief tli e of usit governit it to ord; e Suprera t individu religion! ights of tit ripped ts freedon too far don’t mi in tfieodi iciple ofs tate. interpreo mt religin r public® By JAN PERRY Reporter Two Aggies are spending this semester having fun, making money and louring the United Stales — as Sam, the Olympic Eagle. Mark Rudolph, a senior busi ness major, and his cousin Re in Inda, a junior journalism major, took a hiatus this spring to work as the mascot for 7- Eleven convenience stores. Rudolph and Inda were hired by /-Eleven’s parent firm, the Southland Corp., to don a 50-pound eagle costume de signed by Walt Disney Produc tions and travel to 7-Eleven stores throughout the United States. While one cousin is play ing Sam, the other takes pic tures. Because 7-Eleven is a major sponsor of the Olympics, Inda says, the corporation can use the Olympic mascot to promote its stores and the Olympics. Southland is the only Olympic iponsor to use the mascot, al- nough other major sponsors can use Sam if they wish. Rudolph was the first cousin to be hired as a mascot. He says he was recommended to the corporation by a friend in Tulsa who was the original mascot. When problems arose, the first mascot was dismissed and Ru dolph was left alone. Without a partner, Rudolph says, the entire program would have beeen delayed indefi nitely. To expedite the search for another mascot, he sug gested that Southland hire his cousin, Kevin. Inda was hired and the pro motions tour began. The official purpose of the mascots’ promotional tour is to create as much exposure as pos sible away from the West Coast for Sam and the Olympics. The unofficial purpose, Indsays, is to act as an ambassador at large for Texas A&M. During their travels, Ru dolph and Inda always take the extra time to visit colleges and universities. The benefits Inda and Ru dolph are receiving surprised both of them. Besides touring the United States expense-free, they will be a guest at the Olym pic games. They also will re ceive a 17-day bonus vacation on the ship used for ABC’s Love Boat. Another unexpected benefit they are receiving is the great sense of gratification they get when visiting children in hospi tals, Inda says. They feel good when they see the children’s re action to Sam’s pantomimes. In addition to visiting hospi tals and 7-Eleven stores, Ru dolph and Inda attend sporting events and make guest appear ances on local television shows. Inda says they will be making their first national television ap pearance as Sam on a Chicago- based, nationally syndicated television show, “Bozo the Clown.” In between their television guest shots and public appear ances, Inda and Rudolph are usually on the road. They travel from city to city in a customized van made for them by Budget Rental, another sponsor of the Olympics. The outside of the van is brightly painted to announce the arrival of Sam in advance. The interior was remodeled to accommodate their rather large costume and to provide sleep ing accommodations when the weather warms up. 65 tons of radioactive steel found by helicopter in El Paso United Press International EL PASO — The Martin Brokerage Co.in El Paso was storing 65 tons of radioactive steel reinforcing rods Wednes day, while a Department of En ergy helicopter scanned over parts of West Texas and south ern New Mexico in search of ra diation contamination hot spots. The reinforcing rod, known as rebar, will be shipped back to the Mexican foundry where it was manufactured, as soon as Mexican trucks are available to transport it, said manager Joe Quezada. DOE officials, who have been conducting low-level flights throughout the El Paso area and over Dona Ana County, New Mexico, since last Satur day, have reported no radiac- tive sites in the United States. Quezada said the radiation from the rebar was at such a low-level that it is not being iso lated from other material at the warehouse. “In order for somebody to be hurt by the steel, they’d have to sleep on top of it for a night or two,” Quezada said. The steel was returned to the border from Free Market Steel Co., of Phoenix, Ariz. Radioactive steel was discov ered Jan. 23 at the Los Alamos Laboratories in New Mexico and returned to the border, where officials of the Texas De partment of Health and the Mexican Nuclear Safety Com mission traced its origin to a Juarez, Mexico junkyard. Scrap metal from the junk yard was sold to a foundry in Chihuahua City, Mexico 240 miles south of the border, where it was made into steel re bar and exported to the United States. Investigators learned the scrap metal came from a cylin der of Cobalt 60 stolen from a hospital warehouse and sold to the junkyard for $10. Some of the scrap metal was also proc essed into steel at a small Juarez foundry which manufactures restaurant table parts for ex port to the United States and Canada. The cylinder was originally part of a radiation therapy ma chine purchased by a group of Juarez doctors in 1977. The machine originally came from Methodist Hospital in Lubbock and was sold to the doctors by a Fort Worth firm. The cylinder was stolen in mid-November, 1983. DOE officials are searching for tiny pellets of the radioac tive isotope, Cobalt 60. Most of the pellets were accounted for when the cylinder was discov ered at the junkyard. Heli copter crews are flying over parts of West Texas and south ern New Mexico in search of the remaining 1,500 to 2,000 pellets. William Silva, chief of inci dent investigation for the Texas Bureau of Radiation Control, said the helicopters will con tinue flights for six weeks in an attempt to determine if any of the pellets are still in the El Paso area. AUTO INSURANCE FOR AGGIES Call: George Webb Farmers Insurance Group 3400 S. College 823 8051 te c- •n i- i- te s- --I Mark Rudolph (left) and his cousin Kevin Inda stand beneath the costume they will wear on a tour to promote the Los Angeles Olympics. When warm weather does ar-, rive, Inda says, they face a prob lem. Sam’s costume is very hot. Inda says they are a little warm inside the costume in 30-degree temperatures, but when the temperatures reach the 60s and 70s, they will be really uncom fortable inside the costume. But the costume is one part of their job that they enjoy a great deal, Inda says. “When you step into Sam you turn into someone else,” Inda says. “Mark and I find ourselves talking as if he’s (Sam) a third person.” Drunk Pledge suffers alcohol poisoning at SMU frat party \ state dot! people als — mu As national idopt the :ans shoi religion - wherev' ant. n - gu* 1 nent. -nil Amen lerancefo ) true fref vithouttln United Press International DALLAS — Southern Meth odist University has curtailed activities of a campus fraternity chapter pending an investiga tion into three “alcohol related modems” that sent a pledge to the hospital. SMU’s student newspaper. The Daily Campus,” reported Wednesday that paramedics had rushed a pledge suffering from what campus security offi cers called apparent alcohol poisoning to Presbyterian Hos pital March 1. Campus security officer Richard Abshire identified the injured pledge as belonging to SMU’s chapter of the national Kappa Alpha fraternity. Abshire said the pledge said he attended a rally at the fraternity house Feb. 29 to get a “big brother.” To qualify for a big ad to drii brother, he ha of whiskey. drink a bottle ^Piiegnant? Abshire’s report said the stu dent was returned to his room at the fraternity by a person who said the pledge might be “a little hurt.” Abshire continued that the pledge lay comatose on 1 XKSSZSSMK consider a$ rtc adteMialu/esO « his bed until paramedics were called at 1 p.m. Thursday af ternoon, his right arm and hand swollen, his eyes crossed and no apparent knowledge of his surroundings. 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