All loyal and true-purple Eph harrier alums know that our mascot, The Bear, is tossed aloft before each race, propelling the team to victory. But how many have heard the full and true saga of T. Bear’s adventures? Read on…

It all began in a peaceful New England town, on a not-quite sleepy New England campus, October, 1978. Williams freshman Gordon Coates awoke and went to run in the North Adams Fall Foliage road race. In the post-race raffle his number was called. While pawing through the offerings on the prize table, the freshman was “encouraged” by his teammates to select a huge stuffed bear royally seated there. They chanted ‘take the bear, take the bear…’Gordon succumbed to peer pressure, grabbed the bear, and ran back to the team. Thus The Bear was born. In the next meet the team decided to throw the bear skyward as a pre-race psyche-up. It worked, as they beat Coast Guard and WPI. The Bear became a good luck symbol for the team as they upset MIT at the very next meet.

MIT decided to get even with the Williams harriers by pulling a little prank the next time they met. They “barely” snuck the bear away from an unsuspecting Coach Pete Farwell by inviting him for some refreshments, and it took an exchange of pun-filled letters to get the bear returned at the next meeting of the teams. The Techies took the chance to put their own mark upon the good luck mascot by sewing a varsity “T” upon his bare chest. Precedent was set: teams would steal the Williams bear and return him soon after, leaving some new fashion statement upon the bear. MIT pilfered the Bear again in 1980 at Franklin Park as one Engineer distracted the Eph parent (of Lyman Casey ’81) guard while another Tech-man grabbed the Bear, sprinted up the hill (with parent and manager Ann Jirkovsky ’80 in pursuit) and handed it off to a pre-arranged biker gliding by! The Bear was returned that winter at Towne Field House, site of an indoor meet (in which Williams upset MIT). The Bear now sported an MIT beret and red 82 class years. The Ephs craftily sewed “Beat” and “Cancel” on the beret. That beret survived 21 years of tugging, finally lost by some polar bears in Maine.

Since then, many other teams, including Amherst, Wesleyan, Bates, Bowdoin, and even the Williams women’s team, have been guilty of Bear-knapping. During periods of bear-withdrawal, the Williams harriers have been known to wear black arm- or head-bands, plant beartrap signs on courses, and often toss “surrogate bears” (shirts, pillows, other teddy bears). The Ephs even won a National Championship while bear-less.