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By Joe Gulick
Avalanche-Journal
Many college mascots are easy to draw, but others are not. Some can even tax the imaginations of clever cartoonists such as Dirk West.
For example, Dirk never had occasion to draw Alabama’s Crimson Tide in a sports cartoon but once said he wasn’t sure how he would bring it to life. “I could do it,” he said, “But I don’t know how funny it would be.”
In this cartoon from Oct. 22, 1983, Dirk took on the difficult task of drawing the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane. He did an admirable job of it, adding signal flags and Popeye the Sailor arms.
The Red Raider has traded in his usual cowboy hat for the sailor’s waterproof hat that is called, appropriately enough for a Southwest Conference team, a southwester (or sou’wester.) But Dirk’s standard rule of bullet holes still applied — Tech was 3-2, so there were two holes in the hat.
The Texas Longhorn apparently grew a shark’s dorsal fin for the occasion. Meanwhile, the Aggie is in a submarine, and Uncle Blue Plate and his computer are overboard.
Tulsa blew Tech away 59-20 in Lubbock, and the Longhorns beat Tech 20-3 a week later in Austin.
Dirk named the Raider’s boat after the classic 1939 children’s story by Hardie Gramatky about a tugboat. And “The Love Boat” was a popular ABC television show that aired from 1977 to 1986.
Previous Dirk West Cartoons
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