Totem Carving, last seen in 1949, recovered in 2002

Totem Carving, last seen in 1949, recovered in 2002

In 1949, Bradley’s football team had a mediocre season. They won 5 games and lost 5 games. This unremarkable outcome may have had something to do with two football players stealing a decorative carving resembling a miniature totem pole from the wall of a popular student hangout called the “Teepee.” In 2002, Arnold Van Etten (1952) returned the totem pole to the university after fifty years. Van Etten included a letter explaining that he and fellow Bradley Gridster Tony Calanca “purloined” the item “for a good luck charm for our team.” The carving lived in Van Etten’s gym locker and traveled to all the football games for the remainder of the 1949 season and through the 1950 and 1951 seasons. The lackluster seasons during these years suggested to Arnold Van Etten that the totem pole was not lucky. “Despite its lack of supernatural omnipotence”, he kept it safe for five decades! Students do silly things, but it’s never too late to make amends and give back to your alma mater. Especially if you purloined something.

Curatorial note: This object's anonymity as well as its disconnect from this region’s Native histories, cultures, and arts is a reminder that while this carving adorned a wall of a popular student café on campus until 1949, it neither commemorated Indigenous ancestry nor told the stories of Indigenous people’s presence or belonging in this place. And so, it did not do the work that totem poles do in Native societies. The University of British Columbia offers a concise description of totems and totem poles and their significances. Resource: https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/totem_poles/

Photo by Ching Zedric.

College sports--Football

For official publication permission or to request high resolution images, contact Special Collections at specialcollections@bradley.edu or (309)677-2822.