Page 5 - The University of Texas at El Paso Miner Guide 2024-2025

In April 1919, the students of the School of Mines voted to make the burro the school’s
official mascot. Ruth Augur, the school’s registrar, placed the burro in her design for the school’s first seal, a facsimile of which can be found in a floor mosaic located in the old library section of the Geological Sciences Building. The UT System Board of Regents officially confirmed the selection of the burro fifty years later in 1970.
PAYDIRT PETE
UTEP’s athletic program, however,
had long grown disenchanted with the burro mascot as a symbol for their teams. Despite its official designation
by the regents in 1970, athletics began promoting various caricatures of miners and prospectors in their promotional materials. In 1962, Marshall Meece, a civil engineering student, drew a hardhat miner that was adopted by the athletic program.
In 1974, the University painted an updated version of Meece’s caricature on the Sun Bowl field. That same year, in a contest conducted by alumni, voters named the figure “Paydirt Pete.” Both name and caricature were trademarked in 1981. Alumnus Bernie Lopez created a new rugged prospector caricature, which UTEP adopted in 1984. His Pete wore a miner’s helmet and sported a pickaxe in a more rough-and-tumble fashion. In November 1999, after Pete had transformed into to the pickaxe-wielding, Tom Selleck-mustachioed hybrid prospector-miner that he is today, the regents officially recognized the miner as the official mascot of UTEP, putting the burro out to pasture.
Happy 50th, Paydirt Pete!
Happy Birthday, Paydirt Pete!