Birth
of a Mascot Tradition
By
Bob Beatty
My
freshman year at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie-Mellon,
I decided to try out for Cheerleading. I
was good in gymnastics and enjoyed being
in front of an audience. When I showed up
however, there were 47 girls and me trying
out.
The head cheerleader said she thought having male cheerleaders
was a good idea, and if I could find another male to work with,
they would put us on the team. I did, and for my Freshman year,
we cavorted, flipped, and did other actions to rouse the crowd.
The second year I cam back, but the other male didn't. So I
was by myself again. We put our heads together and pondered
what to do. Carnegie had never had a mascot, so they asked
if I would want to try it. I said I would. Then we had to come
up with a uniform. Since Carnegie was a Scottish school, we
decided upon a Scottish Terrier.
My first attempt at a uniform was a failure. I had bought a
pair of black leotards to try and look the part, but in public
it looked ridiculous. Then we contacted the school Fine Arts
department. They make costumes for their play, so we asked
them to make a Scotty Dog uniform. Voila! It worked.
They came up with a paper-mache
Scottish Terrier head, and a black cloth uniform
that looked
a lot better than leotards. In the fall of 1957, the Carnegie
Tech mascot made its first appearance. As an additional touch,
I had acquired a King Midget car, a very small car with an
8 horsepower motor. It looked like a jeep that caught in the
rain and had shrunk to half-size.
I drove my car onto Forbes
Field, got out of the car, waved at the crowd, and
the Carnegie Scotty was born. The crowd loved it.
I ran around the field, climbed the goal posts, played
football with the other mascots, and had a great
time. So did the fans. When we won, the fans would
pick me up, car and all, and carry me up Forbes Avenue
in a victory celebration.
It has now been 45 years since I went onto the football field
as Carnegie's first Scottish Terrier, and the tradition still
lives on. I'm proud to have started a school tradition at my
alma mater.
Bob Beatty
Hilliard, Ohio
Bob
graduated from Carnegie Tech in June, 1960.
In October of 1960 he was a Cheerleader for the Pittsburgh
Pirates after they won their first pennant in 33 years, appearing
at three Series games.
He was also a cheerleader for then Vice-President Nixon when
he came to Pittsburgh a few days before the election.
After
being the cheerleader for Nixon in 1960, he was invited
to be in the National Honor Guard at the Republican
National Convention in Miami in 1968, and was 30
feet away from Nixon when he gave his acceptance
speech. On Wednesday night, Beatty was in the audience
listening to the speeches, and chatting with a man
he did not know seated next to him. The man never
gave his name, but later friends said they saw Beatty
on television, sitting beside Donald Nixon, Richard
Nixon's brother.
Beatty
worked in the press office for Nixon, when his second-level
boss was John Ehlichman.
