Here’s the truth, Dammit

Every time the tale is told, he’s cast as an inconvenience. Depending on which version of the story you’ve heard, he has either attempted to urinate on or physically blocked the path of some powerful administrator or politician, sometimes President Everett Derryberry, sometimes Gov. Gordon Clement or Gov. Gordon Browning.

Even his name, Dammit, is a testament to his disruptive ability. That’s Dammit as in “Get out of the way, Dammit.”

There are no pictures of Dammit the dog in the Oracle or Eagle. A search of the archives reveals nothing. All that remains of his story has been passed down as an oral tradition. With each telling, the dog becomes more of a nuisance.

In 1953-1954, a dog that went by a number of names lived on Tennessee Polytechnic Institute’s campus. Most called him the dog or Dammit.

“I don’t recall who brought him or when, but I do remember that the dog was definitely friendly,” said Billie Jo Bowling, ’55 accounting.

The dog often hung out outside the cafeteria, waiting for a student to bring him table scraps. Occasionally, he would chase a car down the road, give up, and return to campus to wait for another car.

“I was in one of Pennebaker’s eugenics classes, and he used Dammit to explain genetics because [the dog] was so unusual,” said Harvey Howard, ’55 biology, in a 2008 email. “Doc Lee of English used Dammit as a subject for compositions; students had to describe him.”

Dammit was as a ghost-eye dog; his left eye was light blue and his right eye was brown. Several Tech alumni say he was an Australian blue heeler, a medium-sized, short-coated dog with black and white hair that blends to look blue, hence the name of the breed.

For almost a year, according to Tech alumni, Dammit led a relaxed life on campus. The dog never caused a documented disturbance, and no one has gone on record to say they witnessed one.

During the 1954 Thanksgiving break, most left campus. Nov. 25, the Golden Eagles played Middle Tennessee State Teachers College to a 7-7 draw.

When students returned from break, Dammit had disappeared. They couldn’t find out what happened and, in the stress of finals, turned their attention to studying.

One tale says Dammit disappeared because of a rabies scare in town. There is no record of such a scare in the Oracle or the Cookeville Herald-Citizen.

The other rumor is that Dammit was shot during the break. Two alumni, Howard and Paul Haltom, ’55 social science, say they found the dog’s body in a Dumpster behind the cafeteria.

Both men claim responsibility for placing Dammit’s original monument, a three-foot granite slab purchased from Builder’s Supply in Cookeville. Under the cover of darkness, they dug a hole beside the fire hydrant outside Derryberry Hall and poured concrete to set the marker.

It’s a common myth that Dammit’s remains are buried next to that fire hydrant, that there was a mass funeral procession with a miniature casket for the unofficial Tech mascot, according to both men.

By the early ‘60s, the memorial had vanished.

“We returned to school one fall to find that they had remodeled what is now Derryberry Hall,” said Max Alderson, ’63 mathematics, in an interview with this publication in 2012. “Dammit’s grave was missing. Nobody knew what had happened to it.”

The students had heard the story of Dammit urinating on Derryberry’s leg and thought the administration would not be receptive to a request for a replacement monument. Like those before them, they waited until the cover of darkness and sprang into action.

According to Alderson, who passed away in 2012, 10 to 20 students came out one night to set a new memorial, which had the dog’s name etched into the back of a used tombstone. Some tracked Sherlock, the night watchman, as he moved around campus, and others dug the hole and set the stone.

The memorial is still outside Derryberry Hall. A layer of dust and dirt has settled on top of the stone because of summer waterline work, and it can be difficult to find the tribute to Tech’s memorable canine.

For six decades, Dammit has been one of the most memorable Tech stories, passed down through generations of students. Two years ago, Tech’s Student Government Association passed a bill to adopt a live Dammit the dog mascot.

That’s pretty good for a mutt.