Perry Mastodon (sometimes called Perry, the Mastodon) is the name for some mastodon skeletal remains that were discovered along Riford Road in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. The remains were found on the property of Judge Joseph Sam Perry and Mrs. Nelle Perry [1] on October 16, 1963, [2] thus inspiring naming the remains after them. The remains can be seen in a recreated state on the campus of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois at the science building, where the Geology Department also is housed.
Mastodons are any species of extinct proboscideans in the genus Mammut, distantly related to elephants, that inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of the Pleistocene 10,000 to 11,000 years ago. Mastodons lived in herds and were predominantly forest-dwelling animals that fed on a mixed diet obtained by browsing and grazing with a seasonal preference for browsing, similar to living elephants.
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth largest population, and the 25th largest land area of all U.S. states. Illinois has been noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, and natural resources such as coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, and is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population. The Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, and the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics.
Joseph Samuel Perry was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The mastodon inspired some Wheaton College alumni to submit Mastodons as a suggestion for the school's mascot when the school was seeking to change its mascot.
Perry Mastodon also inspired a song called Perry, the Mastodon by college campus band, The Two Twangs.
The mastodon has been the victim of many pranks over the years. The most legendary occurred on Parents' Day 1975, when a bogus tape recording was inserted in place of the true story of the Mastodon. This prank was written up in the 1976 yearbook, the school newspaper, the Wheaton Daily Journal, and the official history of the college by Paul Bechtel.
The Daily Journal was a daily newspaper in Wheaton, Illinois that published for almost 60 years, from 1933 until 1992. In its final two decades, it was published by Copley Newspapers and had a final circulation of 7,650. Its origins were in a weekly newspaper founded in 1910 called the DuPage County Tribune.
Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private residential undergraduate science and engineering college in Claremont, California. It is one of the institutions of the contiguous Claremont Colleges which share adjoining campus grounds. Harvey Mudd College shares university resources such as libraries, dining halls, health services and campus security with the other Claremont Colleges, although each college is independently managed, with their own faculty, board of trustees, endowment, and admissions procedures. Students at Harvey Mudd College may take classes at the other four undergraduate Claremont colleges. The Bachelor of Science diploma received at graduation is issued by Harvey Mudd College.
Illinois Institute of Technology is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has programs in architecture, business, communications, design, engineering, industrial technology, information technology, law, psychology, and science. Its historic roots are in several 19th-century engineering and professional education institutions in the United States. In the mid 20th century, it became closely associated with trends in modernist architecture through the work of its Dean of Architecture Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who designed its campus. The Institute of Design, Chicago-Kent College of Law, and Midwest College of Engineering were also merged into IIT.
DuPage County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 916,924, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat is Wheaton. DuPage County has become mostly developed and suburbanized, although some pockets of farmland remain in the county's western and northern parts. The county has a high socioeconomic profile and residents of Hinsdale, Naperville and Oak Brook include some of the wealthiest people in the Midwest. On the whole, the county enjoys above average median household income levels and low overall poverty levels when compared to the national average. In 2018 Niche ranked two DuPage municipalities amongst the top 20 best places to live in America.
Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately 30 miles (48 km) west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated to have increased to 53,469 by July 2012, making it the 27th most populous municipality in Illinois.
Wheaton College is a Christian, residential liberal arts college and graduate school in Wheaton, Illinois. The Protestant college was founded by evangelical abolitionists in 1860. Wheaton College was a stop on the Underground Railroad and graduated one of Illinois' first African-American college graduates.
Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university located in Macomb, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. Like many similar institutions of the time, Western Illinois State Normal School focused on teacher training for its relatively small body of students. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College.
Chief Illiniwek was the mascot of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), associated with the University's intercollegiate athletic programs, from October 30, 1926 to February 21, 2007. Chief Illiniwek was portrayed by a student to represent the Illiniwek, the state's namesake, although the regalia worn was from the Sioux. The student portraying Chief Illiniwek performed during halftime of Illinois football and basketball games, as well as during women's volleyball matches.
Wheaton College is a private liberal arts college in Norton, Massachusetts. Wheaton was founded in 1834 as a female seminary. The trustees officially changed the name of the institution to Wheaton College in 1912 after receiving a college charter from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It remained one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States until men began to be admitted in 1988. It enrolls approximately 1,750 students.
The Great Rose Bowl Hoax was a prank at the 1961 Rose Bowl, an annual American college football bowl game. That year, the Washington Huskies were pitted against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. At halftime, the Huskies led 17–0, and their cheerleaders took the field to lead the spectators in the stands in a card stunt, a routine involving flip-cards depicting various images for the audience to raise. However, a number of students from the California Institute of Technology managed to alter the card stunt shown during the halftime break, by making the Washington fans inadvertently spell out CALTECH.
The Masked Rider is the primary mascot of Texas Tech University. It is the oldest of the university's mascots still in existence today. Originally called "Ghost Rider", it was an unofficial mascot appearing in a few games in 1936 and then became the official mascot with the 1954 Gator Bowl. The Masked Rider has led the team onto the field at nearly every football game since. It is the nation's first school mascot to feature a live horse at a football game, ahead of Florida State's Chief Osceola and Renegade and 25 years before USC's Traveler and all other such mascots in existence today.
Columbia Independent School (CIS) is a private school and a prep school in Columbia, Missouri that serves over 300 students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The school's curriculum puts a unique emphasis upon global perspectives.
The DePaul Blue Demons are the athletic teams that represent DePaul University, located in Chicago, Illinois. The Blue Demons participate in NCAA Division I and are a member of the Big East Conference.
The Southern Illinois Salukis are the varsity athletic teams representing Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The nickname comes from the Saluki, the Royal Dog of Egypt and the Persian greyhound, which ties into the fact that southern Illinois has had the nickname "Little Egypt" for just under 200 years.
Wheaton Academy is a private, non-denominational Christian high school that is known for being an educational institution committed to the evangelical Christian faith. Wheaton Academy's campus is located in the city of West Chicago in DuPage County, Illinois, United States, 35 miles west of Chicago.
The Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons, formerly known as the IPFW Mastodons and Fort Wayne Mastodons, are the athletic teams of Purdue University Fort Wayne. The Mastodons compete as a NCAA Division I school in the Summit League for most sports and in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association for men's volleyball. The university participates in 14 men’s and women’s sports. Before joining NCAA Division I athletics, IPFW competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in the NCAA Division II.
John A. Logan College is a public community college in Carterville, Illinois. It is part of the Illinois Community College System. As of 2016, it had total enrollment of 4,424 students, including 1,990 full-time students and 2,434 part-time students.
The following is a list of American sports team names and mascots that are based upon or use religious symbolism. Because of the prevalence of Christian groups and institutions throughout the history of the United States, many of these symbols can be assumed to have come from Christian sources. However, teams deriving their image from symbols belonging to other systems of religious and pseudo-religious beliefs have also been included.
Edman Memorial Chapel is an auditorium facility on the campus of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Its primary purpose is as a chapel, though it is also used for numerous concerts and other large events. The auditorium itself seats almost 2400; the facility also includes support space for the auditorium, separate event spaces in its East Wing, and instructional space for the College's music program. The facility is located at the northeast corner of Washington and Franklin Streets in Wheaton; its tower is visible for miles around.