What about the Pogo cartoon? That’s an obscure question and has caused several rather ill-informed conjectures. Without delving into detail, here’s the core of the story:
That cartoon was a brief moment of fame for the UT cavers. When the guide book was in preparation for the first UT Grotto reunion in 1994, organizers Mona Hanna and Bill Cronenwett contacted Walt Kelly for permission to reproduce some of those cartoons in the guide book. Permission was granted with no significant strings attached. There is a copy of the 1994 guide book in the TSS archives. A photo of the 1994 reunion is on page 136 of the book 50 Years Of Texas Caving. There were two subsequent UT caver reunions in 2004 and 2015 but no guide books were prepared. There is a significant photographic record of the events. The 2004 Reunion group is pictured on page 498 of the 50 Years book. Of that group, five are known to have recently died. Although Bill Helmer was around at the time, he was not involved and the topic of his photographs is an unrelated sidebar. ===Carl Kunath From: kara posso Sent: Friday, April 24, 2020 7:48 AM To: Cave Tex ; searos...@gmail.com Subject: [Texascavers] Historical Question Hello Everyone, Below is a message i received from a fellow through the grotto email the other day. I thought that he would have better luck solving his mystery with the help of all of you since my institutional knowledge does not go back this far. Ross is included on this email, please reply to hum or remember to hit REPLY ALL to keep him on the email chain since he is not signed up on the listserve. Also Ross, if there is anyway you can share the comic strip (or part of it) i am sure people would be interested to see! Thanks folks! Kara My name is Ross Burns, and several people on Facebook suggested that I post this question to your group.It concerns spelunking in the Austin area in the period of 1953-54. I am a fan of the old Pogo comic strips by Walt Kelly. He frequently mentions real people. events, and groups in the strip. I have been reading a recent re-issue of the strips for 1955 and 1956. In a storyline he published beginning in January of 1955, he repeatedly mentions the University of Texas Spelunking Team. Partly I know that he loved to play with words including spelunking. However the repeated mention of UT and Texas over 2 or 3 months, makes me wonder if there was a particular event that he was referring to. Some of the characters are trying to reach the team to help rescue a frog that was swallowed by Albert the alligator. So, it may have been some sort of rescue or similar event. Since Kelly wrote the strips well ahead of publication date, he probably started this storyline in November or December of 1954. I would appreciate any information that you might be able to shed on this mystery. Thank you for your time and attention. Ross Burns -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers -- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
_______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
