{"id":654,"date":"2015-04-01T17:58:39","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T17:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/?p=654"},"modified":"2018-02-08T13:36:05","modified_gmt":"2018-02-08T13:36:05","slug":"techs-mythic-mutt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/techs-mythic-mutt\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech's Mythic Mutt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the truth, Dammit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every time the tale is told, he\u2019s cast as an inconvenience. Depending on which version of the story you\u2019ve heard, he has either attempted to urinate on or physically blocked the path of some powerful administrator or politician, sometimes President Everett Derryberry, sometimes Gov. Gordon Clement or Gov. Gordon Browning.<\/p>\n

Even his name, Dammit, is a testament to his disruptive ability. That\u2019s Dammit as in \u201cGet out of the way, Dammit.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no pictures of Dammit the dog in the Oracle or Eagle. A search of the archives reveals nothing. All that remains of his story has been passed down as an oral tradition. With each telling, the dog becomes more of a nuisance.<\/p>\n

In 1953-1954, a dog that went by a number of names lived on Tennessee Polytechnic Institute\u2019s campus. Most called him the dog or Dammit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t recall who brought him or when, but I do remember that the dog was definitely friendly,\u201d said Billie Jo Bowling, \u201955 accounting.<\/p>\n

The dog often hung out outside the cafeteria, waiting for a student to bring him table scraps. Occasionally, he would chase a car down the road, give up, and return to campus to wait for another car.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in one of Pennebaker\u2019s eugenics classes, and he used Dammit to explain genetics because [the dog] was so unusual,\u201d said Harvey Howard, \u201955 biology, in a 2008 email. \u201cDoc Lee of English used Dammit as a subject for compositions; students had to describe him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dammit was as a ghost-eye dog; his left eye was light blue and his right eye was brown. Several Tech alumni say he was an Australian blue heeler, a medium-sized, short-coated dog with black and white hair that blends to look blue, hence the name of the breed.<\/p>\n

For almost a year, according to Tech alumni, Dammit led a relaxed life on campus. The dog never caused a documented disturbance, and no one has gone on record to say they witnessed one.<\/p>\n

During the 1954 Thanksgiving break, most left campus. Nov. 25, the Golden Eagles played Middle Tennessee State Teachers College to a 7-7 draw.<\/p>\n

When students returned from break, Dammit had disappeared. They couldn\u2019t find out what happened and, in the stress of finals, turned their attention to studying.<\/p>\n

One tale says Dammit disappeared because of a rabies scare in town. There is no record of such a scare in the Oracle or the Cookeville Herald-Citizen.<\/p>\n

The other rumor is that Dammit was shot during the break. Two alumni, Howard and Paul Haltom, \u201955 social science, say they found the dog\u2019s body in a Dumpster behind the cafeteria.<\/p>\n

Both men claim responsibility for placing Dammit\u2019s original monument, a three-foot granite slab purchased from Builder\u2019s Supply in Cookeville. Under the cover of darkness, they dug a hole beside the fire hydrant outside Derryberry Hall and poured concrete to set the marker.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a common myth that Dammit\u2019s remains are buried next to that fire hydrant, that there was a mass funeral procession with a miniature casket for the unofficial Tech mascot, according to both men.<\/p>\n

By the early \u201860s, the memorial had vanished.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe returned to school one fall to find that they had remodeled what is now Derryberry Hall,\u201d said Max Alderson, \u201963 mathematics, in an interview with this publication in 2012. \u201cDammit\u2019s grave was missing. Nobody knew what had happened to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students had heard the story of Dammit urinating on Derryberry\u2019s leg and thought the administration would not be receptive to a request for a replacement monument. Like those before them, they waited until the cover of darkness and sprang into action.<\/p>\n

According to Alderson, who passed away in 2012, 10 to 20 students came out one night to set a new memorial, which had the dog\u2019s name etched into the back of a used tombstone. Some tracked Sherlock, the night watchman, as he moved around campus, and others dug the hole and set the stone.<\/p>\n

The memorial is still outside Derryberry Hall. A layer of dust and dirt has settled on top of the stone because of summer waterline work, and it can be difficult to find the tribute to Tech\u2019s memorable canine.<\/p>\n

For six decades, Dammit has been one of the most memorable Tech stories, passed down through generations of students. Two years ago, Tech\u2019s Student Government Association passed a bill to adopt a live Dammit the dog mascot.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s pretty good for a mutt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s the truth, Dammit Every time the tale is told, he\u2019s cast as an inconvenience. Depending on which version of the story you\u2019ve heard, he has either attempted to urinate on or physically blocked the path of some powerful administrator or politician, sometimes President Everett Derryberry, sometimes Gov. Gordon Clement or Gov. Gordon Browning. Even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-spring15"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.tntech.edu\/visions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}