Tusk, The Mascot That's A Boar
Hog Lives Among Chickens On Tyson Farm
Last updated Friday, October 14, 2005 10:00 PM CDT in Front
By Jeff Smith
The Morning News
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FAYETTEVILLE -- Lynn Warren's one proud momma during Razorback football games.
Except the hog she raised is the real deal, the University of Arkansas live mascot.
Warren, a director of research and nutrition for Tyson Foods, keeps a scrapbook of the Russian boar and his family.
"I'm very proud to have a hand in helping with the mascot because I'm Arkansas to the bone and it's just been a very wonderful experience," she said.
Warren and Tyson have cared for the live mascot since Tusk II's father moved in July 2001 from the Little Rock Zoo to the Tyson research farm in Johnson.
The university brought two female sows from Missouri to help produce offspring for Tusk I. Monica produced eight piglets Aug. 2, 2002, and Merial also produced eight piglets 10 days later.
Three of the piglets, all male, were kept; female boars do not have tusks. Merial, Monica and their 13 piglets returned to the Missouri farm.
"I just miss them when they were babies," Warren said. "I cried my eyes out when (the others) had to leave."
Tusk I went to Hog Heaven in December 2004, and his three sons carry on the tradition during in-state football games.
Whichever Russian boar is willing to go with Team Tusk of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity carries the moniker Tusk.
Reece Bailey leads the Tusk Team for the fraternity, which cares for the live mascot on game day weekends.
Bailey, a sophomore agricultural business major, volunteered last year for the team. He worked with animals and pulled trailers in high school, and his family also raises cows in Mountain Home.
"I thought it would be a neat experience," Bailey said of working on Team Tusk.
The five Tusk Team members pick up the 400-pound boar the night before a game and heard him to the Friday night pep rally.
"It's neat to drive up and down the interstate because even if they're not going to the game, they're waving at you, honking their horn at you. They're really excited to see him," Bailey said.
Tusk spends the night behind the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity house on Stadium Drive next to the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House. Bailey said they've never had problems with keeping him at the house, located across the street from Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
"Everybody knows they have to respect him for sure. Nobody messes with him while he's back there," he said.
Tusk and his entourage head to the stadium and load up cheerleaders 90 minutes before kickoff.
They then drive through the stadium, where the cheerleaders and mascots lead fans in calling the Hogs.
A stadium crew of three people walk in front of Tusk's entourage clearing the way because there's not much space for the large cage that Tusk calls his pig palace on game weekends.
"When I'm making corners, it's within inches, sometimes centimeters. It's really tight through there," Bailey said.
Tusk's work ends with the cheers since the university placed temporary bleachers in the north end zone -- Tusk's former seat for games. Bailey said his team returns Tusk to the Tyson farm and normally makes it back to the game half way through the first quarter.
"For the most part he's pretty calm. You can tell when he's ready to get out and he's had enough of it," Bailey said. "Everything goes real smooth with him. Occasionally he tries to get after us but nothing too bad."
Fans are not allowed to feed Tusk or put their hands inside his cage. He is a wild animal, after all.
The live mascot program began in the 1960s and different breeds and names have been used. Razorbacks are only known to exist in the Australian Outback.
Some live mascots have made headlines for their off-the-field piggish ways. Big Red III escaped from an animal exhibit near Eureka Springs in summer 1977 and was gunned down by a farmer. Ragnar was captured by a farmer after killing a coyote, a 450-pound domestic pig and seven rattlesnakes.
"I just think it adds another dimension," Jean Nail, spirit group coordinator, said of having a live mascot. "He is the ultimate razorback, a true razorback."
The university also has human mascots, including Big Red, Sue E., Pork Chop and Boss Hog.
"He's live and he's not a human dressed up as something. Everybody across Arkansas knows about Tusk. I think that's kind of a big deal," Bailey said.
University officials still have hopes one day one of Tusk's offspring will be tame enough to run through the "Big A" in front of the football team.
"I wouldn't want to be the one to lead him," Nail said.
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