Wonder Boys.
Golden Suns.
Jerry the Bulldog.
What is the story behind these identities, and how do they work together to represent Arkansas Tech University?
Let’s start with Wonder Boys. From the time we fielded our first football team in 1911 until 1920, our teams were known as the Aggies. Then, on Nov. 16, 1920, John Tucker led our football team to a 13-0 win at what was then known as Henderson-Brown College in Arkadelphia. The next day, in the Arkansas Gazette, the nickname Wonder Boys was used as a proper noun describing the team.
The new nickname stuck, and our men’s athletic teams and our male students have been known as Wonder Boys for more than a century.
Through the early years of women’s sports at Arkansas Tech, the teams were known as the Wonder Girls or the Wonderettes.
By the mid-1970s, the women of Arkansas Tech were ready to establish their own identity.
That took place in 1975 when the female athletes at Tech voted to become the Golden Suns.
In the half-century since, the nickname Golden Suns has become associated with achievement in competition, in the classroom and in the community.
Wonder Boys and Golden Suns are nicknames that carry special meaning to multiple generations of the Arkansas Tech family, but they do not lend themselves to visual representation. Being a Wonder Boy or a Golden Sun…it’s more of a feeling than a tangible thing.
That’s where another piece of Arkansas Tech history comes in.
During the 1930s, W.O. Young was serving as the business manager at Arkansas Tech. He owned a bulldog named Jerry, and Jerry enjoyed coming to campus with Mr. Young on a regular basis. Jerry liked to hang out at the National Guard armory on campus. He became so popular with Tech students that when he passed away in 1937, there was a front-page article in the school newspaper with a headline that read:
“Campus Losing Mascot in Passing of Jerry”
The story of Jerry the Bulldog was rediscovered in 2012, and after a year of research and planning, the ATU Student Government Association cast a unanimous vote on Oct. 23, 2013, to restore the tradition of Jerry the Bulldog and install him as campus ambassador.
Our first modern Jerry, Jerry Charles Young I, was introduced on Oct. 26, 2013, and served until his retirement on Oct. 1, 2022.
Our current campus ambassador, Jerry Charles Young III, took office on April 24, 2023. He represents Arkansas Tech by attending a wide variety of ballgames, student activities and community events.
The men of Arkansas Tech are Wonder Boys. The women of Arkansas Tech are Golden Suns. Together, we are the Arkansas Tech family…and Jerry is pretty much our family pet.
That’s how it works. Not that complicated, right? Three stories…three traditions…countless memories…and many more to be made.
Fight On, Arkansas Tech!
