Don't Mess with this Mascot

A word on mascots for a minute.

I don’t usually spend much time writing about mascots, unless it’s something unusual. LSU was one such exception, because bringing a live tiger anywhere (even if it’s in a cage) is such a train wreck waiting to happen that it bears mention. Oklahoma State has another such claim, with the extraordinary story of their of mascot “Pistol Pete”.

I say this unequivocally: Pistol Pete might be the coolest mascot story I have ever heard.

The inspiration for Pistol Pete came from a legendary Oklahoma lawman named Francis Eaton, who was born in 1860 and lived to the ripe old age of 97. His true story reads like a piece of western folklore.

“As a boy, young Frank witnessed the murder of his father, a Yankee, at the hands of six Confederate outlaws. Vowing to avenge the murder of his "pa," Eaton became an expert marksman by the time he was a teenager. True to his word, he tracked down and killed all but one of his father's assailants in true gunslinger style. The final desperado died before Eaton could get to him, but the ever-vigilant marshal attended the man's funeral anyway, just to make sure he was dead. Eaton, who lived to be 97, recalled this quest for frontier justice and other fabulous tales in his 1952 autobiography, Veteran of the Old West.”

More in depth stories on Frank “Pistol Pete” Eaton can be found here:

http://www.okstate.com/trads/pistol-pete.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Eaton

http://osu.okstate.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=284&Itemid=96

If you can find a better mascot story than that, by all means let me know so I can make a drive out to that school.