History

Sammy the Owl is the mascot at Rice University An early symbol of Rice's athletic teams was large canvas owl, a tempting target for the Institute's rivals. In 1917, when students from Southwest Conference football rival Texas A&M kidnapped the owl, Rice students pooled their resources and hired a private detective to go to College Station to find the missing mascot. When the detective, having recovered the owl, sent a coded telegram to Houston that read "Sammy is fairly well and would like to see his parents at eleven o'clock," the Rice mascot had a name.

Eventually, the canvas representation of Sammy was replaced with a live owl. During this period, handlers kept Sammy in a roost in front of Lovett College. Prior to football games, Sammy was known to fly into the stadium.

Rice University later discontinued its tradition of a live owl, replacing it with a student dressed in an owl suit. As such, Sammy the Owl is an elected position of the Rice University Student Body.

Notable events

• 1917 - Canvas depiction of Rice Owl stolen by students from Texas A&M. Mascot is recovered and given name Sammy.
• 1986 - Sammy the Owl (Truscott) performs world famous "Shadow the SMU Drum Major" routine at halftime so successfully that letters were written to Rice President George Rupp from SMU officials.
• 1991 - Sammy the Owl suit reinvented and redesigned to meet the needs of the 6'+ Keith Jaasma and Greg Meeks. Sammy appears increasingly frumpy in subsequent years as normal-size human beings inhabit the suit.
• 1991 - Sammy's head is stolen during a road trip to UT.
• 1992 - Keith Jaasma removed from Sammy the Owl duties because he is deemed so attractive that female game attendees stop watching the game and only watch Sammy do his patented Owl Shimmy. Official university records reflect that Mr. Jaasma "graduated" from Rice that year.
• 1993 - While dressed as Sammy the Owl, Bill Breslin faints at half time during a televised Rice vs University of Texas at Austin football game (at Memorial Stadium), much to the concern of the referees.
• 1995 - Student Sammy the Owl is tried before UCourt (Rice student judicial organization) on charges stemming from November 9, 1995 football game against No. 9 Texas A&M.
• 1995 - Sammy the Owl elected homecoming queen.
• 1996 - Sammy receives a make-over and a new suit is unveiled. This suit would later be ranked as one of the worst collegiate mascot uniforms.
• 2004 - Sammy the Owl is featured in Playboy Magazine's story on College Mascots
• 2006 - Sammy's Owl suit is upgraded.
• 2007 - Sammy joined Facebook
  Facebook
  Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
  
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• 2009 - Sammy is ejected from a basketball game against Tulane for bumping an official.

Other appearances

Sammy the Owl has also served as the image of Rice athletics for many years. Past images have depicted Sammy as wearing a sailor hat. In 1995, the image of the owl swooping in behind the university's name replaced old images of Sammy.

The Rice Thresher awards its annual "Sammies" to the best performances in Rice theater. These awards are given by the Thresher staff without consultation with the mascot, but use his name nonetheless. Remarkably, Greg Meeks, Sammy the Owl, 1991-1992 also won a Sammie best actor award for his performance as Richard the Lionheart in 1992.

Sammy the Owl is also the mascot of a fictional high school in the movie Rushmore

Rushmore (film)

Rushmore is a 1998 comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson about an eccentric teenager named Max Fischer , his friendship with rich industrialist Herman Blume , and their mutual love for elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross . The film was co-written by Anderson and Owen Wilson...

, filmed in Houston.

Debates Surrounding Sammy

Sammy the Owl is elected annually during the Rice University

Rice University

William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...

 Student Association's spring election. This practice, however, has been debated since the mid-1990s. In 1995, following an incident during the Rice-Texas A&M football game, the question of who should be responsible for Sammy the Owl was raised. Following much debate, it was decided that Sammy would remain an elected student, but would be formally accountable to the athletics department.

Past Sammys

School Year (Fall)	Rice University Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States... Students Who Have Been Sammy
1977-1978	Phil Rosegrant and Maynard Southard
1979-1980	Kevin Bartol and Grant Masson
1981	David Ronn, alternate Bob Avery and occasionally Kenny Austin
1982	Doug Mischlich and Robert "Ivan" Putzke
1983	Doug Mischlich and Brad Borg
1984-1985	Unknown
1986-1988	Michael Madden and Robert Truscott
1988-1989	Deron Neblett and Paul Bushkuhl
1990	Phil Schwarz and Ozzie Bayazitoglu
1991-1992	Keith Jaasma and Greg Meeks, and once Mark Gargiulo at Baylor game, Oct 12, 1991. Mark oversleeps with the costume in his room the morning of an away game against SMU, so Sammy fails to make a road appearance.
1993	Antroy Arreola and Bill Breslin
1994	Jamie Loughridge and Preston Waters
1995	Stephe Gallagher
1996	David Gordon, Robert Guerra, and Al Suarez
1997	Annette Franco, Laura Gill, and Tara Morris
1998-1999	Unknown
2000	Erik Vanderlip, Shannon Scott, Mary Templeton, and Suzy Cox
2001	Jo Rees, Julia Buergler, and Tiffany Bludau
2002	Elizabeth Burney and two others (nb: Rice Alum '94 and Sammy veteran Bill Breslin performed as Sammy for innings 4-8 of Game 2 of the CWS in 2003.)
2003-2004	Lanny Bose
2005	Luke Gilman, occasionally Matt McDonell
2006	Zachary Dreyfuss, Matt McDonell, occasionally Grant Garlinghouse
2007	Stephen Rooke, occasionally Grant Garlinghouse
2008	Richard Romeo
2009	Zachary Fedorko
2010	Natasha Kappaya and Jonathan Hammann