THE TRUE STORY OF PISTOL PETE

STORY BY BILL SMITH, PISTOL PETE 1959-1960

My first involvement with the original Pistol Pete was in 1956. I was visiting my brother at Oklahoma A&M and saw a crowd of students in the Student Union gathered around an old guy dressed as a cowboy, right down to his chaps and six-shooters. The man was Frank Eaton — the original Pistol Pete. Frank was the real thing, a true cowboy with two Colt 45s in his holsters and hundreds of tales of the Old West in his head. Eaton was also something of a character who had been roaming the sidelines of home football games since 1923. He even served as the model for the first Pistol Pete cartoon logo.

I had a real love of guns and asked Frank about his weapons, which I recognized as the five-inch barreled model 1911 Colt 45. Frank was impressed with my knowledge and love of firearms and told me of his favorite side arm, the 44-40 caliber Colt “Frontier Six Shooter.”

Frank and I had fun getting together a few more times before his death in the spring of 1958 — Happy Trails, old friend.

The 1958 season, when I was a freshman, was to be the first OSU football season without Frank Eaton “Pistol Pete” in more than a quarter of a century. A loose-knit group of students started meeting with the idea of honoring the original Pistol Pete by creating a replica that would be recognized by the university as the official OSU mascot. Because it was known that I had been something of a friend of Frank, I was asked by Chuck Marshall, a student representing the Spirit Club, to join their group. This mascot committee was so loose-knit, you pretty much “joined” by showing up to meetings. Charles Lester was the ringleader of the committee. Our core group was made up of Charles, Chuck, Don Yandell (an art student I knew from Ardmore High School) a couple of cheerleaders, some pom-pom girls, and anybody else who looked interested. We managed to get the orange chaps donated by a local merchant. I donated the spurs and double-set holster. In a real community effort, the guns — two Smith and Wesson .38 caliber Police Specials — were donated by none other than the Stillwater Police Department. We didn’t have a leather vest, so Don donated a fake-fur green vest he got from the art department. He said it would keep Pete warmer than a leather one anyway. Now all we needed was the head.

I’m not sure who actually made the head, maybe the OSU art department. Don Yandell painted it. It was big and heavy, more than 30 pounds (you wore it suspended to an army helmet). It was clumsy, hard to see out of, and we loved it.

Now we had the head and outfit, but nobody to wear it. That year OSU had a pretty good football team and had been invited to play in the inaugural (and although unknown at the time, final) Bluegrass Bowl in December. We thought it would be a great time to show off Pistol Pete at a televised game. Charles Lester said he planned to go to the game, so he was conscripted to be the first Pistol Pete. Charles paid his own expenses and even carried the head and outfit to the game in the back seat of his car.

The bowl game was in Louisville, and it was very cold. The game was played in a baseball stadium in front of fewer than 4,000 people. In those days, television cameras were big and stationary and could only shoot plays that were close and well-lit. Therefore, the cameramen did a lot of sideline shots. Pistol Pete, who hadn’t any idea exactly what he was going to do that day, stayed in front of the camera and was a big hit. The “color” announcer that day was Howard Cosell. Pete gave Howard a lot to talk about. To cap it off, OSU won that frozen game 15-6 over Florida State. GO POKES!

Charles did a great job that day as Pistol Pete. And when he returned to campus, the entire student body went nuts over the new mascot. The administration quickly approved Pistol Pete as the school’s official mascot.

Charles was graduating that year, so we set about looking for his replacement. The committee put out flyers and leaflets for students to audition to become the first official Pistol Pete. Only two guys showed up for the interview. One said he just liked to dress up, and the other said he really liked shooting off guns. Neither was accepted, of course. Chuck Marshall turned to me and said, “Bill, why don’t you do it? You knew Frank Eaton, and I think he would be honored for you to be the first official Pistol Pete.” I was reluctant at first, because I had promised my parents I’d really bear down on good grades my sophomore year. But after thinking it through, I accepted.

THE " COLOR " ANNOUNCER THAT DAY WAS HOWARD COSELL . PETE GAVE HOWARD A LOT TO TALK ABOUT.

WE AGREED THAT TO CREATE THE PROPER MYSTIQUE ABOUT PISTOL PETE , HE SHOULD NEVER BE SEEN WITHOUT WEARING THE HEAD .

I had a great time as Pistol Pete that school year of 19591960, and my role didn’t end with football season. I attended basketball games, pep rallies and many other student functions. One football game in particular stands out in my mind.

When I went to Manhattan, Kan., for the Kansas State game, our faculty adviser decided I shouldn’t carry the guns across state lines, but instead he would bring them to me. He told me when he arrived he’d forgotten them, so he bought me two old used guns and some blanks that had been in a fire.

When I attempted to use the blank bullets, only every third or fourth would fire, creating ominous clicking noises before an eventual discharge. One bullet was a hang-fire, and then discharged after I had holstered the old gun. There was lots of smoke, and my orange chaps were coated with black soot. It created quite a stir in the Wildcat crowd.

We agreed that to create the proper mystique about Pistol Pete, he should never be seen without wearing the head. In retrospect, we may have made a mistake in deciding that no one should know the identity of Pistol Pete. As a result there were no official records of the first Petes, resulting in a few false claims. So for the record, here are the first five Pistol Petes. I knew these men personally. There were no Pistol Petes before these listed below:

1958-1959: Charles Lester

1959-1960: Bill Smith

1960-1961: Curtis Manley

First part of 1961: Pete Fay

Remainder of 1961-1962: Dave Davis

[For the complete list of past Pistol Petes, turn to page 80-81.]

By the way, Curtis Manley found that my spurs wore a spot on his boots, so he returned them to me. I’ve still got them, along with my OSU diploma.