University of Iowa football's first live mascot: Burch the Bear

Editor's note: This story by former Press-Citizen reporter Zach Berg was first published in April 2018.

Before Herky the Hawk, there was Burch the bear.

Believe it or not, a live black bear cub named Burch served as the University of Iowa football team's mascot from 1908 until the bear's tragic death in 1910. That's 40 years before Herky's debut.

Football players took Burch on the road with them, wrestled playfully with the bear and hoped it would bring them good luck as it prowled the sidelines of opponents' fields across the Midwest.

Only bad luck came to the Hawkeyes during the bear's tenure, and Burch's own luck ran out 18 months after it arrived when the bear died under confusing circumstances that filled Iowa City newspapers for days.

With the opening of St. Burch Tavern, a new restaurant and bar named after the bear and partially owned by Hawkeye football great Nate Kaeding, Burch is back in the news, 110 years after the bear first made its way from Idaho to Iowa.

By sifting through old newspapers and some misinformation, and also enlisting help from the good people at the UI Pentacrest Museums, we've pieced together the history of UI's first mascot, its tumultuous tenure in Iowa City and the eventual mounting of Burch's head as taxidermy for the University Museum.

But one thing cannot be unearthed through research: Where in the world is Burch's head today? This piece of UI history has seemingly disappeared into the mist of time.

How Burch came to UI

According to a Sept. 9, 1908, Iowa City Citizen article, Burch hailed from Moscow, Idaho, and came to Iowa City by express via St. Paul, Minnesota.

A copy of "The Iowa Alumnus" Vol. 6 from 1908 states the "good natured and playful" Burch was secured by head football coach Mark Catlin while visiting his father's ranch in northern Wisconsin.

Catlin, who was at UI to pursue a law degree, compiled a 3-2 record the previous season, an improvement on the team's 2-3 record in 1906. The bear was seen as a good luck charm to help the Hawkeyes team, which had only been around for 16 years.

Burch arrived in Iowa City with flair. The bear came via train in a box addressed to assistant coach John Griffith. Written on the box, according to the Iowa City Citizen, was a note: "Mr. Expressman, I am going to be a mascot. If you find a little time and milk and water, please give me some. Your's truly, Burch."

Burch was several months old and about as large as an average-sized dog. With a long piece of rope attached to a long pole, a football player lead the cub to its new den at Iowa Field.

The Citizen wrote: "Football stock went up two and three-eights points yesterday when Burch, a fine black bear cub arrived in a healthy and hearty condition to become the mascot of the Hawkeye eleven in the coming season.”

Things were going well after Burch's arrival. Players wrestled with the bear for fun, and it traveled with team on every road trip. Burch was kept under the watchful eye of Jimmy Barry, the groundskeeper of the UI athletic park, later known as Iowa Field.

Burch's first game, held on the eastern side of the Iowa River at Iowa Field — Kinnick Stadium's namesake, Heisman winner Nile Kinnick, wouldn't be born for another 10 years — was a victory over Coe College, a historic 92-0 victory, the second biggest margin of victory in Hawkeyes history. (UI defeated Iowa State Teachers College, now known as University of Northern Iowa, 95-0 in 1914.)

The beginning of Burch's tenure was a smashing success, but it was the bear's first team road trip to Columbia, Missouri, to play the University of Missouri where Burch's infamous reputation started to grow.

Arriving in Columbia on Oct. 17, the Daily Iowan reported that Hawkeye players were beseeched with questions about why they were towing a bear around. The crowd started to tease Burch, who bit an Iowa freshman with its filed teeth. After that, most of the crowd let the bear be, except for one fellow.

As Iowa substitute tackle Fat Johnson escorted the bear around the stadium, one individual poked Burch in the back. "Quick as a flash, Burch wheeled and harmlessly wrapped himself around the victim's leg." A city marshal ran to the scene and threatened to make an arrest if the bear wasn't muzzled.

"No legal procedure was started against the bear," the Daily Iowan wrote.

No victory was to be had either. UI lost at Mizzou 10-5. Though the team bounced back in Sioux City, beating Morningside College 16-0, the season ended with four consecutive losses: 11-8 to Nebraska in Iowa City, 22-0 at the University of Illinois, 12-6 to Drake in Iowa City, and 10-5 to Kansas at home.

Kansas was Catlin's last game as Iowa head coach — he left with a law degree and went on to coach at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Griffith took over the team and Burch. By July of 1909, the bear was raising havoc throughout Iowa City.

On July 9, 1909, the Citizen reported that Burch broke free from its chain and headed for higher ground during flooding, retreating to the "the aristocratic precincts of North Clinton Street." Luckily, Griffith and other men were able to capture Burch "after a lively tussle." It was reported that Burch was afraid to cross the nearby Iowa River, likely the reason the bear traveled north toward town instead of west.

Burch was relocated to the City Park Zoo — yes Iowa City's City Park had a zoo — for the rest of the summer, though it's unknown if the move was related to the escape.

By the time the 1909 season started, Burch was a year bigger and more aggressive, too. The Daily Iowan reported "Burch had grown to full size, and, moreover, had developed a somewhat dangerous disposition."

One rather frightening incident was reported by the UI student newspaper. On the bus ride to play Mizzou again on Oct. 30, 1909, Burch "drove the entire squad into one small corner of the bus on the way to the game." The bear had officially become "too big to be manageable," and after games Burch was resigned to a cage at Iowa Field

The football team as a whole faltered, going 2-4 on the season. Griffith, who also was head basketball coach, left Iowa after coaching the basketball team to an 11-3 record, going on to reprise his role as head coach of both sports at the University of Idaho.

Burch's downfall

Shut away in a cage at Iowa Field, Burch disappeared from newspaper headlines until Feb. 4, 1910, when both the Citizen and Daily Iowan reported Burch had died. "ALAS, POOR OLD BURCH IS DEAD" read an all-caps headline on the Citizen's front page.

When groundskeeper Barry went to the bear's cage in the back of the grandstand to feed him, Burch was found "curled up in a corner lifeless," the Daily Iowan reported.

Weeks later, the headlines were different: "BURCH: IS HE DEAD OR ALIVE?" the Daily Iowan headline read. Despite reports that Burch was dead, Barry informed reporters that "following the custom of his kind, the former mascot has merely gone into his winter quarters, or, in other words, is hibernating."

Barry would not let reporters see Burch, though, saying there was too much snow and ice on Iowa Field. It wasn't until March 3 that Barry let "a crowd of students and newspaper men" rush to the bear's cage, according to the Daily Iowan.

When they got to the cage, Burch was not there. They found twisted bars, torn netting and a hole in the cage, with bits of fur clinging to the sides of the hole.

Reports started coming in that Burch was seen following the edge of the Iowa River. The Daily Iowan wrote that multiple Coralville farmers had hen houses invaded by "some marauding animal" and a sheep was killed while Burch was roaming free. An idea of forming a search party was suggested, but was sadly not needed.

On March 9, men blasting ice on the river north of Coralville "noticed a dark and almost submerged object floating slowly down with the masses of dislodged ice," the Daily Iowan reported.

"The object was a full grown black bear, without doubt Burch."

Only theories were reported as to how Burch fell in the river. The Daily Iowan published a simple one: Burch saw a crack in the partially frozen ice, walked onto the river for a drink and the ice broke, submerging the bear in the icy river.

Burch's body was given to University of Iowa Museum of Natural History taxidermist Homer R. Dill, but because of the bear's condition, being stuffed was not possible. Burch's head could be salvaged and mounted, and was supposedly hung in the athletic section of the museum, the Citizen and the Daily Iowan reported. Burch's skull was said to be possibly used by zoological department at UI.

Barry told the Daily Iowan he feared "Burch's ghost, like those of all who die violent deaths, would return to haunt the scenes of his bearhood days."

If the dreaded sight of Burch's ghost ever did come back, Barry said UI would need to find a new groundskeeper.

Barry was paid an honorary $10 from the UI athletic board for his services watching over Burch. Adjusted for inflation, $10 in 1910 would be worth a little more than $250 today.

A forerunner of Iowa mascots

Burch would become the first recorded mascot of UI, with a series of others coming after. Longtime Press-Citizen writer Irving B. Weber, the man whose statue stands near the intersection of Iowa Avenue and South Linn Street, wrote in 1978 that UI had a rather large dog serve as an unofficial mascot before Herky came into existence.

UI professor Dick Spencer III — a cartoonist who taught in the journalism school— entered a contest to create a mascot for the school in 1948. He drew what would become Herky and the university has never looked back.

But for now, Burch is back in the limelight thanks to St. Burch Tavern. In the new restaurant, Burch's likeness can be found everywhere. An angelic yellow neon sign of Burch with a halo hangs next to the front door, another red neon sign with Burch is in the tavern's basement. A black bear head hangs on the wall in the basement, as well, though it's not Burch.

The location of the real head of Burch the bear is a mystery. Despite what the Daily Iowan and Citizen reported, the Director of UI's Pentacrest Museums Trina Roberts said the Museum of Natural History does not have Burch.

Roberts said in an email that the museum does not have the head or skull of the bear, and there's no record of either.

"Many departments have come and gone in this building over the years, and whatever 'athletic selection' of the museum we may have had is long since disassembled," she said.

So if Iowa Citians ever see a black bear head hanging on someone's wall, it could be that of UI's first, and most unruly, mascot.