In 1934, Joe joined hundreds of Baylor supporters in marching up Congress Avenue in Austin prior to the football game against Texas. The group entered the State Capitol building, where the bear and the Baylor band were invited inside the Texas Senate chamber to perform for legislators.

When Bill Boyd first started taking Joe College to campus in 1932, the college student got no financial assistance from cash-strapped Baylor to help him care for his 200-pound companion. To feed Joe, therefore, Boyd sought donations of food from local grocery stores and restaurants as well as from Baylor dining halls. He was successful, and Joe’s weight eventually shot up to about 450 pounds, even though the food the bear seemed to enjoy most was lettuce.

When it became impossible to keep the ever-expanding bear in Boyd’s backyard, members of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce student organization offered to build Joe his own cage on campus, one of a number of acts which began the tradition that continues to this day of the chamber feeding and caring for Baylor’s mascots.

Joe’s new wire cage was not foolproof, however. Boyd said that every now and then the bear would escape and wander over to the women’s dormitories.

“The women undressing on the first floors would see him looking in the window,” Boyd said.