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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 20, 1986)
•MSC • TOWN • HlALLr Presents THE RETURN OF THE JUDY’S 8:00-11:00 Nov. 21 Deware Fieldhouse Tickets $4. 00 MSC BOX OFFICE Page 8AThe BattalionAThursday, November 20, 1986 Mascot stealing once i- a Texas A&M tradition c Editor’s note: Eh is week is bonfire Push Week, another in a long line of Texas A&M traditions. Today and Friday, The Battalion will publish articles on Aggie lore submitted by members of Student Government’s Traditions Council, who gathered their information after combing through the University Archives. By Steven Ihnen Special from the Traditions Council Mascots of the Southwest Confer ence have seen plenty of action off the playing field as well as on. The stealing of mascots from other schools was once a pasttime of A&M and was practiced on every school in the Southwest Conference. On Jan. 16, 1917, Rice Universi ty’s mascot was the unfortunate vic tim of mascot theft. This theft rep resented perhaps the most extensive ordeal a mascot has ever endured. The mascot, for what was then known as Rice Institute, was a 6-foot, 200-pound, stuffed canvas owl named “Sammy.” It attended the A&M-Rice basketball game in Hous ton as usual, but was left unguarded after the game. Left in the gym, the owl fell prey to a an eager group of victorious A&M basketball players who took the mascot to College Sta tion as a trophy. The players paraded him around town, and even the University’s pres ident got in on the act by posing for a picture with the newly sworn-in ROTC cadet owl. Houston newspapers published the pictures and quoted the Aggies’ invitation: “If Rice wishes to claim their bird and even think that they are able to take him back to the ‘insti- toot,’ they can find him at 39 Milner Hall, College Station, Texas.” Accounts of the mascot theft were denied at Rice, where it was claimed that the original owl was still around and that A&M cadets had made a duplicate. A group of Rice students orga nized to form the “Owl Protective Association,” a group whose job it was to recover the owl. Members of the group sent a detective to A&M to locate the exact whereabouts of the mascot and report back to them. The detective’s midnight search through campus via the steam tun nels proved fruitless. A second rescue attempt was made in which another detective was sent. But this time, the detective posed as a newspaper reporter looking for a story. The Aggies obliged the reporter’s request to see the owl. That night the OPA met with the detectives and asked about the owl’s whereabouts. The plan was then put into action. The headquarters of the expedition was Kyle Field. A network of com munications was established by hav ing students station themselves within sight of each other. Then, four of the 16 students planned to retrieve “Sammy” who was locked securely behind the Ar mory door. Using knives to carve out the lock, the students drew the atten tion of one of the night watchmen. The watchman entered the build ing, and one of the students darted “If Rice wishes to claim their bird and even think that they are able to take him back to the ‘insti-toot,’ they can find him at 39 Milner Hall, College Sta tion, Texas. ” — Aggie challenge to Rice through the window in plain view of him and climbed down the side of the building. The watchman chased the student, leaving the coast clear for the remaining three students. After escaping from the watchman, the first student returned just in time to discover another watchman attempting to sneak up on the party. Two of the other three students made a dash for the ground floor and ran to the headquarters to issue a report. The watchman discovered the last OPA member and was walk ing him out when the student man aged to escape in the direction of Kyle Field. At the headquarters, the OPA de cided to charge the building, break down the door to the Armory and make a quick exit before the cadets awoke. With fire extinguishers in hand, the OPA stormed the main building and approached the Ar mory door. Forming a human wedge, the stu dents broke the door down and dis covered the owl sitting in the corner of the room. They poured gasoline on the owl so that they could burn it if they got caught. While exiting the biiikiul encountered another watch filled the silent air with thes his .44-caliber pistol, const waking up every cadet inibij d< i But the group members mai-tAc their cars and took off for Hu pot I he whole plan was worliKhc fedly until the H&I C trainirj sav scheduled stop in College sj for Cadets boarded the train in:Hio <>l the OPA. Aggies hungpuiHir train’s windows when thev® 1 the Owl gang driving on tklliit: alongside the tracks. The 0.1 on turned its getaway cars anxclmat |H look the first road it found. Five miles down the road ■ the cars broke down, so it uaJ hind along with five men tos the Aggies from the car J Owl. But misfortune struck | gang again when its othert out of gas. I The OPA split into twoj One carried the owl mascou woods, and the other returod broken-down car togetgasuj the other car. Hut bad lud again. The crew fixed itscarl broke down and ran out: again. As a last resort, oneofii dents went to the nearest: Millican — to buy gas. 11 was later discovered d car's gas tank Was punctum more gasoline would beofix. the meantime hundreds of d tot cycles, wagons and bud loaded with eager Aggie searching for the owl. As a final resolution, tlr stripped the skin offtheotdJ and burned its 200-pound- j The cadets found the group! time to see the last flamesdJ while the “Elusive Four”mil way to Houston witli thesliEi owl. file cadets, knowing thesl existed, went in searchofitafi iug captive the remaining git® OPAs. I he "Elusive Four J the Aggies by splitting ifflB| groups of two — one groupif the Aggies, while the other* skin, took off to Navasota. Through the helpofagr hunters, the skin made it Navasota and on to Houston, three days for the skin to at its home. This is Your LAST Chancel! Since Juniors, Seniors, Grad., Med. and Vet students didn't get their pictures made, the/Vggieland is giving them one last chance. Get your picture made by November 21 at AR Photgraphy II Mon-Fri 8-12 1-5 707 Texas Suite 120-B (Across from the A&M Polo Field) Freshmen and Sophmores deadline Nov. 7.