Karen Rogers, ’68 and I gave a talk today about the history of Sammy. There’s a lot of material about Sammy spread across all kinds of collections and this was the first time we’d ever tried to pull even a little bit of it together. It all turned out to be pretty interesting, with lots of twists and turns, drama, tragic demises, a surprisingly large number of kidnappings and not a few loose ends and unanswered questions.
Here, for example, is a very odd sequence of negatives taken quite near the beginning of the “Sammy as a Person in a Costume” era, which began in 1970:
One of the astute listeners at the talk suggested that it may have been homecoming and that the mysterious box in the first image could be a case of beer. Closer inspection reveals that to be exactly the case. But why the barefoot fellow dressed like a pregnant woman? Could be the Arkansas game, I suppose.
Bonus: Sammy actually showed up in person! I confess I enjoyed seeing everyone in the room line up to get their picture taken with him.
