1965: UTEP mascots TNT O’Kelly, Clyde the Burro make return to Battle of I-10
The Battle of I-10, 1965, featured the return of then Texas Western College’s mascots TNT O’Kelly and the burro now named Clyde. The silver spade trophy also made a return after being rescued from a closet at the college.
Sept. 26, 1965, El Paso Times
‘TNT O’Kelly,' Burro To Return
The first home game of the 1965 Miner’s season may have been a record-setter, but for the second home game – Texas Western College will have an even better surprise for football fans.
The TWC-New Mexico State University contest at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Sun Bowl will mark the return of the Miners’ burro mascot and TNT O’Kelly” – irascible old prospector whose identity has remained a mystery well-preserved from the old days of the College of Mines to the present.
The crusty, bearded miner will introduce the crowd in the Sun Bowl to “Clyde,” an eight-month-old burro donated to Texas Western on Friday.
“This is turning out to be an exciting year,” Student Association president Fred Craft said. “We were sitting in the office after the Colorado State game saying to ourselves “Golly, we sure do need a mascot,” and Ed Wisbrun looked up and said” ‘You got a mascot!’ – honest, it happened just like that.”
Presentation of the burro was made to assistant football coach Cliff Speegle at the Sun Bowl on Friday. Speegle accepted Clyde on behalf of the college and the Miners. O.D. Perkins and Charles Starling were special guests. Perkins is city manager for Hertz Rent A Car Co. and Starling is sales manager.
Hertz has volunteered to provide a stable, food, care and transportation to all games on the Miners calendar except to Wyoming. They began by taking Clyde to the Albuquerque, N.M., game Saturday night.
More: 100th matchup: Miners, Aggies created big moments in Battle of I-10 rivalry
HOME-OWNED
Clyde will be the first burro actually owned by the college. The former mascot, traditionally name “Maxine,” was officially part of the half-time hi-jinks of TWC’s engineering fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega.
David Godfrey, APO who was in charge of Maxine during the home games for 1960 through 1962, says, “The burro became part of Texas Western tradition sometime before 1959. In 1960 Willard Deerman, Upper Valley rancher, lent us a burro and we arranged to have it at all athletic activities and pep rallies.”
Responsible for donating the new burro to the college are Ed Wisbrun, Reginald Sanders Jr., John Kelley, John Silverman, Rusty Jennett, Willie Melby, Bill Morgan, Alan Kahn, Norman Salomi, and Steve Steen.
Fall of 1962 was the last time Maxine appeared, David says. “She got pregnant in 1963. Now she’s on the loose and can’t be found,” he concluded. David, a junior geology major, and the APO’s will be on the sidelines Saturday with their crank-type siren and hilarious by-plays to help cheer the Miners to victory over the Aggies.
“Another tradition that will be featured Saturday night will be the silver spade exchange,” Craft added.
Since 1955 a silver spade has been passed back and forth at each annual Aggie-Miner contest. The victor engraves the spade with the year and college initials. In recent years the traveling football trophy has been forgotten.
“We found the spade in a closet inherited by Dean Carlos Garcia when he became dean of men.” Fred confessed. “The last inscription reads ‘NMSU – 1961.’”
In 1962 Texas Western won the spade back by smashing NMSU 21-0 in an upset victory in Las Cruces.
“At Leadership Conference two weeks ago, we invited the Student Body president from NMSU, Doug Boston, to come over,” Fred said, “and one of the items we talked about was re-establishing the exchanging of the spade as an annual tradition.”
ON DISPLAY
The silver and mahogany trophy, polished and engraved with up-to-date data will be on display in the Student Union Building all next week prior to the game.
Causing almost as much excitement around campus as Clyde is the return of TNT O’Kelly. The origin of this TWC tradition is shrouded in obscurity, but according to campus legend, TNT first appeared as a caricature of the old miner prototype in an issue of the “Prospector,” Texas Western’s weekly newspaper.
Then, at one of the home games in old Kidd Field, one of the APO’s appeared in a disreputable costume, sporting the battered hat, spattered vest, faded jeans, scraggly beard, scuffed boots, and handy six-shooter and flak of the old prospector. TNT O’Kelly had become a part of the college football scene!
Traditionally played by an unidentified active member of the engineering fraternity, O’Kelly disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived when the decade of the Soaring Sixties arrived.
As for the 1965 “TNT O’Kelly” – who will he be?
You’ll never know,” Craft promised.
Trish Long may be reached at tlong@elpasotimes.com or 915-546-6179.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: UTEP mascots TNT O’Kelly, Clyde the Burro return to Battle of I-10