Doyle Owl
An editor has nominated this article for deletion. You are welcome to participate in the deletion discussion, which will decide whether or not to retain it. |
 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
The Doyle Owl is the unofficial mascot of Reed College. It is a roughly three-foot high, 300 pound (136 kg), concrete statue of an owl that originally occupied the lawn of a Portland resident.[1] One night in 1913, the Owl was stolen from the lawn by residents of the Doyle dormitory, part of Reed's Old Dorm Block. The Owl was promptly hoisted atop the dorm building, where it drew the attention and envy of neighboring dorms. According to the 2006–2007 Student Body Handbook, however, the Doyle Owl may have originated as an ornament atop the Doyle dorm, from which it was removed as a "dorm memento".[2]
The Owl was first stolen in a 1913 dorm war. Another dorm kidnapped nine residents of Doyle, offering to exchange the captives for the Owl. This did not work and the "hostages" escaped. The same rival dorm staged a two-hour siege on Doyle, featuring water, mud, and ammonia bombs. Doyle countered by using a firehose, but the tradition had been born.[1]
Over the years the Owl has been stolen countless times.[1] However, an odd feature has accompanied this thievery. Whenever it is stolen, the stealers must flaunt it at a "showing," where elaborate measures are taken to display the Owl while reducing the odds of it being re-stolen by a new group. Often the resulting brawl involves the majority of the student body. The Owl appeared hidden in the grass in the "Sowing the Seeds of Love" music video for the band Tears for Fears after video editor Mike Quinn told Director Jim Blashfield about the Doyle Owl tradition at Reed, where his younger brother was a student. Other "showings" have included encasing it in ice, covering it in Vaseline while hanging it off the Blue Bridge, setting it on fire (using baking oil) and throwing it out the back of a speeding car.
Temporary possessors of the Owl also traditionally take pictures of themselves next to it, to prove their possession, and pictures of the Owl in strange places and with unusual people have become de rigueur; it has been seen in the US at Disneyland, in Seattle, in San Francisco, and in Lincoln, Nebraska.[1] The Owl has been pictured in the company of Steve Jobs and Dr. Demento.[3] The Reed Office of Admissions feeds the air of myth surrounding the Owl, with its website claiming Owl sightings in Paris, France, and in Jakarta, Indonesia.[1] The Doyle Owl also has its own profile on tribe.net.
References
- ^ a b c d e Reed College Admissions website describing the Doyle Owl Archived June 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Allen, Charlie, "Reed Facts & Myths", Reed College Student Body Handbook, (2006), Reed College.
- ^ Doyle Owl article by D. Squirrel, Reed alum
External links
- Webarchive template wayback links
- Noindexed articles
- Articles for deletion
- Articles with topics of unclear notability from May 2014
- All articles with topics of unclear notability
- Articles needing additional references from May 2014
- All articles needing additional references
- Articles with multiple maintenance issues
- Fictional owls
- Reed College
- Sculptures of birds in Oregon
- Sculptures of owls