At one time, the skeletons in the universities and colleges were made from real human bones. They were given names, made into mascots, and were part of everyday college pranks.
Sometimes the skeletons were stuck high up on towers, such as the incident at Marischal College in Aberdeen where students put the school’s skeleton up on the Mitchell Tower. [1] Other times, the skeletons were taken off school property to be used in pranks or dismantled and left in pieces about town.
Here are several other strange things our recent ancestors did with university skeletons.
A Tricycle Ride Through Town
It might have been an ordinary day like any other in Tomsk, Russia, had it not been for M. Kalmuikoff and the bet he made. You see, back in 1904 the millionaire made a bet with some unnamed person that he could circle the little town seven times on his tricycle with a skeleton seated behind him.
To get the skeleton, Kalmuikoff bribed a servant at the Tomsk University to steal a classroom skeleton. The skeleton was then placed on the back of his tricycle and topped with a French beret.
As Kalmuikoff rode around the town, boys hollered after him and chased him. A few women fainted, and the police were called about the disturbance.
At first, the police took the event in stride. After all, there was nothing illegal about riding your bike with a skeleton, but word soon got out that a skeleton was stolen from the university and the police began to chase after the prankster.
In spite of the commotion, Kalmuikoff pedaled seven times around the town and as he was on his final stretch to the finish line, a policeman stepped out in front of him and was run over by the bike.
After all of the excitement, the skeleton was returned to the university and Kalmuikoff had to appear in court for his actions. [2]
Goat Riding
What do you do when you are not ready for the first day of college? Most students would just sleep the day away or, better yet, show up to class with a hangover, but that was not the case back in 1916.
The students of Wooster College in Wooster, Ohio, were dead set against the college year starting. They removed the clapper from inside the bell hung at the school’s chapel and then, to make extra certain that none of the other students could get into the school, they removed all the doorknobs to the entrances.
As one final smack to the face of a college education, the students commandeered a skeleton and a stuffed goat from the curio room, and placed the two oddities, the skeleton riding on the back of the stuffed goat, in the Y.M.C.A. room inside the college.
However, for all the effort of the pranksters, college did begin as planned and if the college ever identified the pranksters, the results were never published. [3]
A Few Bones to Pick
Normally when a person became a medical student, he or she would purchase a skeleton through the normal channels, such as through a medical supply company, but that was not the case for one student from South Gippsland, Victoria.
David Rodgerson’s sister was enrolled in a therapy course at Melbourne University and needed a set of bones for her study. David saw some bones lying about while out shooting at Koondrook. He gathered up the freebies and gave them to his sister.
After her course at the university, the bones were tossed into a box and kept around her brother’s house for three or four years. He eventually grew sick of the bones and dumped them alongside a rode in 1955.
Naturally, the bones were discovered and the police were highly alarmed.
David stepped forward when news of the bones being discovered reached him. He told the police his story and a government pathologist confirmed that the bones came from two different Aboriginal skeletons.
Since there were no signs of foul play, the case was closed. [4]
Too Strung Up
Diamond Joe was the name given to the skeleton on display in the biological department at Drury College, Missouri in 1911. He must have been rather popular because one day he disappeared from the classroom. The faculty went off in search of the bones and discovered a dug grave in front of the building with a white sheet inside. Lifting the sheet, all the faculty discovered7n was dirt. It appeared as though Diamond Joe was gone for good.
Two weeks later, Diamond Joe made his reappearance. This time he was found strung up inside the college chapel. It was the day of the big baccalaureate sermon for the college graduates, and family and friends were showing up at the door to show support.
Fortunately, a quick thinking faculty member ran to the chapel doors and persuaded everyone to go to a different chapel, one that was four blocks away, to hear the sermon.
No doubt the staff had one heck of a time getting Diamond Joe unstrung after the baccalaureate speeches, and it was never reported if the pranksters were ever caught. [5]
Up a Flagpole
There was a strong rivalry between the freshman and sophomore classes at the University of Nevada Back in 1910. The pranks were getting pretty weird and reached their pinnacle on the day the freshman class pranksters stole Bones from the biological department.
By the next morning, old Bones was found hanging by his neck from a flagpole, waiting to greet the sophomore class. He wore a placard that read, “Sophs! Dead but not buried.”
The sophomore class became angry over the taunt and as some of the young men prepared to cut the flagpole down, the custodian appeared on the scene and had one of them climb up the flagpole instead to cut the rope from which Bones swung.
Unfortunately, Bones came crashing to the ground and ended up in pieces. A valuable and costly teaching tool, the faculty were at a loss, but the sophomore class got the last laugh as the entire freshman class came under the suspicion and disdain of the biological department. [6]
Bag of Bones
One must always be careful with how they store their bones because you never know who might be lurking around the corner. A case in point happened in 1913 when a professor set down his large bag of bones (a complete skeletal set) outside the door of the medical school at Sydney University.
A nearby thief had been watching and as soon as he thought no one was looking, he walked up, grabbed the heavy bag, and began to run. The medical students standing about the yard saw the thief and went in pursuit of him.
It took only moments for the students to capture the thief and the thief, along with the bag, were brought to the anatomy room. There, the students opened the bag for the thief and the man went into a mad panic. The students were holding a bag full of bones and, as far as the thief knew, his bones could be stripped and stuffed in a bag as well.
The students, however, found the situation rather humorous and chastised the thief by saying, “This is about the limit. Fancy taking a poor dead man who is not able to protect himself. It’s a shame.” [7]
The Lady and the Skeleton
College and university women did not hold pranks like the young men did. In fact, what they did seemed rather tame, although sometimes they could get a bit weird with the school’s skeleton.
The young women at Vassar College in New York state, 1891, had their own ways of dealing with college stress and even boredom. For instance, they would often put on plays with the young women playing both the female and male roles. Those who played female roles were billed as “Miss,” but those who played male roles were billed by their first two initials and their last name. Other than that, both the female and male characters were dressed in skirts.
Sometimes the young women would get the college skeleton involved in the plays. Ferdinand, as he was named, was easily made to play the role of any gentleman. While he did not get his own set of words, they was no shortage of male attire for him and he never complained about who he was to be paired up with. [8]
The Tango of Terror
Thinking they could give their friends a good scare, several men broke into Centre College, Kentucky, in 1916 and stole the skeleton display. They took skeleton to a secluded spot next to a path in the local park, strung it up like a marionette, and anxiously awaited their friends.
It did not take long before two men, unknown to the pranksters, came to the spot of the strung up skeleton. Figuring they could have some pre-fun, they began making the skeleton dance in the air, rising up and down to some ghastly tango. The men hollered in fright and took off.
Unfortunately for the pranksters, no one else ever showed up on the path and their prank failed to reach their intended. The skeleton was returned to the college, leaving the men to dream up some new way to scare their future victims. [9]
A Fine Model
Skeletons were not only kept in the biology departments and oftentimes they found their way into the arts schools.
The College of Fine Arts in Garvanza, California, 1906, had a special skeleton named Rastus. He was hung in the life room of the college and was the college’s unpaid model. Not only was Rastus cheap, he never once complained about being dressed and posed for the students.
During one of the school’s receptions, Rastus was posed on his very own model thrown, dressed to the hilt in a fine, leather cowboy costume. It made many of the college visitors feel uneasy, but the students quickly became accustomed to the man of bones. [10]
