Collection on SpiRIT (Tiger)

Item set

Title: Collection on SpiRIT (Tiger)
Description: In 1963, a “Tiger Council” made up of RIT students purchased the two-month old Bengal tiger, SpiRIT, to serve as the school’s mascot. While SpiRIT was housed at a local zoo, the tiger was also brought to campus for a variety of events, so that students could interact with their mascot. Students trained as the tiger’s handlers, such as David A. Page (’66), formed particularly close relationships with SpiRIT, which made the animal’s untimely death in 1964 particularly difficult. In 1967, the tiger’s pelt was preserved, so that future generations could also experience the once-living embodiment of Student Pride in RIT.
Subject: SpiRIT the Tiger
Creator: Daniel Krull
Source: RIT Archive Collections
Publisher: RIT Museum Studies
Date: 2017
Contributor: Daniel Krull
Rights: RIT Archive Collections
Relation: http://library.rit.edu/findingaids/html/RITArc.0035.html
Format: Documents, RIT Reporter Clippings, Digital Print, RIT Techmila, RIT Reporter, Signage, Poster, Sculpture,
Language: English
Coverage: 1963-1989

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RIT Bengal Tiger Maquette
This 8.5x11 inch business letter was written in June of 1967 by David Page, one of SpiRIT’s handlers who previously served as the school’s human mascot, and addressed to Dr. James B. Campbell, Vice President of Student Personnel Services at RIT. In the letter, Page discusses the plans to have the deceased SpiRIT’s pelt cured by a taxidermist, and turned into “a small tiger skin rug… for a trophy case on the new campus.” Contrasting this endeavor to the taxidermy often utilized by trophy hunters who actively seek out animals to kill, Page states: “the spirit of the tiger has done much in the past to enrich the tradition of RIT and it can do much more in the future. It is a small but integral part of RIT as an institution and should never be allowed to fade as the school grows.”
Taxidermy Letter by David Page
This 8.5x11 inch business letter was written in June of 1967 by David Page, one of SpiRIT’s handlers who previously served as the school’s human mascot, and addressed to Dr. James B. Campbell, Vice President of Student Personnel Services at RIT. In the letter, Page discusses the plans to have the deceased SpiRIT’s pelt cured by a taxidermist, and turned into “a small tiger skin rug… for a trophy case on the new campus.” Contrasting this endeavor to the taxidermy often utilized by trophy hunters who actively seek out animals to kill, Page states: “the spirit of the tiger has done much in the past to enrich the tradition of RIT and it can do much more in the future. It is a small but integral part of RIT as an institution and should never be allowed to fade as the school grows.”
Pelt of SpiRIT the Tiger Mascot
This is the pelt of SpiRIT, which was preserved in 1967. Both students and faculty, including David Page, worked to ensure that the tiger’s legacy would be sustained after SpiRIT had to be put down due to untreatable medical issues. Although the pelt usually stays at its home in the school’s archive, the mascot still fosters a sense of student identity, particularly when incoming Freshmen are given the opportunity to view and experience the preserved SpiRIT of RIT during new student orientation. (Pelt not on view during the onsite exhibition in 2017-2018. Please contact the RIT Archives to view.)
SpiRIT Leaving a Party
This page from RIT’s 1964 Techmila depicts a unique aspect of campus life, in which students were able to interact with a tiger, SpiRIT, at Christmas parties on campus. The bottom photo on the page shows SpiRIT as he’s leaving a party with handlers Jim Black and Roger Kramer, who also served on the Tiger Committee which organized the school’s acquisition of the mascot. The accompanying text points out that while the symbol of the tiger was only recently adopted by RIT, it is possible for it to become associated with the school, in this case through the use of a live mascot.
SpiRIT Zoo Plaque
SpiRIT would often visit RIT’s campus, but his official home was at Rochester’s Seneca Park Zoo. This 9x12 inch plastic plaque, displaying white text on a brown, faux woodgrain background, originally hung outside SpiRIT’s cage at the Zoo. The plaque states: “Official Mascot of R.I.T. SPIRIT (Student Pride in R.I.T.) Presented to the Zoological Society by the Students of R.I.T. Born – July 29, 1963.”
SpiRIT Stock Certificate
This 8.5x6 inch paper ‘stock certificate’ includes a foliage-inspired decorative background along with a similarly designed red border. Under the heading “STOCK CERTIFICATE” it states: “This is to Certify That _____ is the proud owner of one share of school spirit and tradition, manifested in the form of a Bengal Tiger – the Official Mascot of Rochester Institute of Technology.” The signatures of Roger Kitchen, James Black, and Denis Kitchen are included under the heading “Rochester Institute of Technology ‘Tiger Committee.’” These stock certificates were originally sold for $1 each in 1963 and 1964, as a fundraising endeavor intended to pay back the $1,000 loan which the Student Council provided to the committee, so that it could purchase the tiger cub.