baylor bears - Benjamin A. Simpson

Here’s Joy, one of Baylor’s mascots, in my apartment back in 2002.
The Tires Plus shirt? Thrift shop purchase.

My friend Clint Patterson was on the Waco History Podcast and spoke about the Baylor mascot program. This is a direct link to the episode. Clint is a Baylor treasure.

I’m mentioned a few minutes into the podcast, a pleasant surprise. Back when I was a student I got to be around the mascots. My roommate Ryan Fitzhugh was the Bear Coordinator, my friend Tyler Sellers was the Bear Trainer at this time, and I was a member of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce who served on the Bear Committee.

One of the other roommates in the apartment was willing to make their space available for the first couple of months Joy was on campus. We decorated with scrap carpet and cinder blocks.

I don’t think I was around most of this summer. I had an internship back home at Green Acres Baptist Church in the children’s ministry. But I drove back over to Waco a few times to see our new mascot. Such a cool experience.

One of the projects I’ve tackled during COVID-19 was building a 3-in-1 plyometric box. Here is the blueprint I used.

I bought a sheet of plywood at The Home Depot. I brought my supplies home, and my next door neighbor, Lance Lowe, used his table saw to make the cuts.

Due to distancing measures, I dropped the board outside Lance’s garage, and he returned the pieces soon thereafter.

“Because of what Baylor has meant to you in the past, because of what she will mean to you in the future, oh, my students, have a care for her. Build upon the foundations here the great school of which I have dreamed, so that she may touch and mold the lives of future generations and help to fit them for life here and hereafter. To you seniors of the past, of the present, of the future I entrust the care of Baylor University. To you I hand the torch. My love be unto you and my blessing be upon you.”
– Samuel Palmer Brooks

Molly helped me assemble the box.

“We did it our way, baby!” – Barry Switzer

“I didn’t spend the night with the trophy. I spent it with my trophy wife.” – Andy Reid

After I put it together, Lance told me he’d be happy to brand the box with logo art from six of my favorite teams. I dropped the box on his driveway, and this is how it came back.