A New Year: 2011

I just found emails with 'anonymous' entries responding to this blog. The posts sound like someone who is fond of alma mater, but resents my quest to revive the past. If this person is in favor of the restoration of Totem Teddy, and it did sound that they might be, then it would be good to be open about who they are and if they are willing to be an advocate for the project.

I understand that there are 21st Century traditions that students who graduate from UNC will treasure. I hope that they will become advocates for their 'stuff' as I am an advocate for mine. I have no intention to demean anyone's idea of what a good memory of college life is like. That I want to remind all Bears where their totem came from.. their mascot... my mascot.. Totem Teddy is simply that. It is my intention to advocate for one of the first traditions that students rallied around almost a hundred years ago.

So.. This is not an 'us vs. them' routine. There is no us nor them. As far as I'm concerned it's only us: UNC Bears! That I have tunnel vision for this important project is only because my relationship with the Bear Totem is over sixty years old and has deep meaning for me.

All I want to do is revive the Bear Totem on campus and hope that current students and those students who may never have seen the original totem may have the opportunity to embrace this my recreation of this iconic figure. My artwork (see previous posts) will be a new totem. Hopefully, it will pique the interest of current students as well as alumni. It is not to replace anything, it is to awaken the Greeley campus to one specific thing that turned the 'Teachers' into The Bears!

All anyone has to do is to pledge support and I'll do the rest. All are welcome.

At least this 'anonymous' poster didn't say that college students today don't have time to deal with non-representational art! Thanks for your interest.

And, if I am ever in Greeley for any of the activities that Anonymous mentions, I'll be happy to participate.

Michael Sheehan

NEXT STEPS

This is an invitation to all University of Northern Colorado Bears: students, faculty, staff, administration and alumni to pitch in with ideas for the restoration of Totem Teddy to the UNC Campus. The Centennial of his arrival on campus will happen in 2014. It is my goal to restore the totem in an artful way before that time.

Tradition has never been a big deal in Greeley, but the Bear in me is still hoping for others who may agree that neither a stuffed bear in a plastic box nor a huge squatting bronze, neither one is a true representative of our Bear Spirit.

I have offered to build the "ReIncairnation of Totem Teddy" at my own expense on the same site where the Ghost Memory Totem stood from 2005 until 2008 and the original Totem Teddy stood until his repatriation to the Tlingits of Angoon, Alaska in 2003. The Bear Totem stood proudly on the Greeley campus for almost ninety years and it is my firm belief that his memory should not be forgotten.

Alumnus, the Honorable Lynn Karowsky is responsible for the term "ReIncairnation!" Thank you, Judge Karowsky.

Please join me in my effort to restore the Spirit of Totem Teddy to the UNC campus.

Michael Sheehan
CSC Class of 1963