Legend of Texas Western College campus gator prank turns 60

The University of Texas at El Paso offers Gator Camp as part of its fall orientation program to encourage new students to make their mark on campus as a handful of undergraduates did 60 years ago this month.

Those students “borrowed” a live, 6-foot, 400-pound alligator from San Jacinto Plaza in downtown El Paso and left him in the second-floor office of Howard A. Quinn, Ph.D., professor emeritus of geology, during the overnight hours of Dec. 10-11, 1952.

While a legend in some campus circles, many of today’s Miners, including faculty who are alumni, are unfamiliar with the tale of Oscar the Alligator and how he made a brief but memorable visit to what was then called Texas Western College.

Read the full article at UTEP’s news website.