SFA Lumberjerks

Reading Formersammy09's post about getting speared by a lumberjack (I'd love to read the full story on that one, BTW) jogged my memory on a couple of SFA Lumberjerk experiences of my own:

1995 - On the SFA campus there's a statue of Stephen F. Austin standing proudly with his hands on his hips. It was my first season as Sammy (as well as the chair of the Program Council Spirit and Traditions committee), and I wanted to do something a little bit ... rebellious. So I found a way for the school to pay for orange Kool-aid, streamers and a big red hooker dress with huge falsies on the front out of my mascot prop budget. We bought every packet of orange Kool-aid that Wal-Mart had. It was somewhere around 200 packets. We opened them all and put the orange powder into a big tupperware bowl.

And under the cover of darkness, several of my friends and members of the Sprit and Traditions committee left Huntsville and drove to Nacogdoches. We got there about 10pm and snuck around the campus avoiding security, trying to find their fountain. We finally found the fountain and began dumping the orange Kool-aid into it. We also emptied a bottle of dish soap into it. Some of us "TPed" the trees with the orange streamers while others climbed the statue and put the red hooker dress on the statue of Stephen F.

By the time we left, there were orange bubbles floating everywhere, streamers hanging and Stephen F. Austin, the proudest hooker ever, standing stoically in the center of the fountain, complete with huge fake boobs. I've got a photo in storage somewhere. If I ever dig it up, I'll post it. If the statute of limitations has expired, that is...


1996 - The game was in Nacogdoches this year. I was on the track headed to the field house for a break when out of nowhere a costumed lumberjack mascot ran up behind me and gave me an elbow to the kidney, then ran away. I was down on the ground rolling around in pain and didn't see a thing. Luckily, I was taping for my nationals tape and got to see the whole thing go down on tape later. That's the day I peed blood.

Later the same game... Sam Houston won (to my recollection, anyway) and the SFA fans were TICKED OFF. I was in the Sammy suit walking back to the bus. Unbeknownst to me, there was a group of about ten Sigma Chis from SFA following me. They were just about to make their move and beat the crap out of me when my cheer sponsor's husband saw what was going on and cut them off. He was a big, muscular dude - a Houston police officer - and happened to be a former Sigma Chi himself. So he was able to stop them so I could board the bus. I didn't even find out what had happened until a few minutes later. That was the day I probably cheated death. Whew!