Arkansas Tech University will mark the two-year anniversary of its campus ambassador program with Jerry Day 2015 on Friday, Oct. 23.
Jerry Day celebrates the anniversary of the unanimous vote cast by Arkansas Tech Student Government Association to install Jerry the Bulldog as campus ambassador on Oct. 23, 2013.
In observance of Jerry Day 2015, the first 125 students in line at 11 a.m. and the first 125 students in line at noon on the second floor of Baswell Techionery will receive a free commemorative Jerry the Bulldog cup. Students may use the cup to purchase 99 cent refills at Baswell Techionery and Doc’s Place for the remainder of the fall 2015 semester.
The first modern Jerry and current campus ambassador — Jerry Charles Young I — will be available for photographs on the Baswell Techionery patio from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday.
The tradition of Jerry the Bulldog at Arkansas Tech dates back to the mid-1930s. Owned by the W.O. Young family, the original Jerry spent much of his time on campus at the armory (now known as the Stroupe Building) with National Guard Battery F. The students and guardsmen there adopted Jerry as if he was their own.
Reports from an Arka Tech student newspaper article of the era state that Jerry was “always present at anything of importance at the armory,” which was a social center of campus at that time. When Jerry passed away in late 1937, the headline in the Arka Tech proclaimed “Campus Loses Mascot in Passing of Jerry.”
The story of Jerry was lost for three quarters of a century before it was rediscovered and restored as a permanent part of Arkansas Tech lore. Jerry Charles Young I was introduced as campus ambassador during a Homecoming Saturday ceremony in front of Williamson Hall on Oct. 26, 2013. Since that day, he has represented the university by appearing at a variety of campus and community events.