Every Miner Maniac knows him. The square chin, the smooth mustache, the pickaxe held high while the Sun Bowl roars. But Paydirt Pete did not strike gold overnight. Our pickaxe-wielding mascot has a backstory packed with burros, contests, cigars, and a Hollywood costume shop, and it is one of the best origin stories El Paso has to offer.
So grab your pick, throw up the two-digit salute, and let’s get into how Pete was born.
Paydirt Pete Started as a Doodle in a UTEP History Class
Before the muscles, before the name, before any of it, Pete was just a sketch. In 1962, civil engineering student Marshall Meece drew a pick-wielding miner cartoon after Texas Western College sports information director Eddie Mullens asked him for some drawings for football program covers.
Meece reportedly drew that very first miner while sitting in the history class of Dr. Wilbert H. Timmons, the legendary TWC historian whose name now graces a campus building. The athletics department started using the doodle unofficially, and a Sun City icon was quietly born in the back of a lecture hall.
Before Paydirt Pete, El Paso Had a Burro Named Clyde
Pete was not UTEP’s first attempt at a mascot. That honor belongs to a live burro named Clyde, who served as the original pot-bellied face of Miner spirit. Clyde’s tenure ended in brutal fashion when UTEP President Dr. Joseph Ray famously dismissed him as a “sorry-looking, pot-bellied creature.”
Clyde was swapped out for a second burro named Henry, and students would dress as rugged prospectors and parade the donkey around games to give the program that authentic Wild West feel. The school wanted something with more edge, though, and the stage was set for a real mascot.
How UTEP’s Mascot Got the Name Paydirt Pete in 1974
By 1973, athletics director Jim Bowden asked Meece to rework his original drawing, and in 1974 UTEP held a naming contest. More than 500 entries poured in, but only one struck gold. The winning name, Paydirt Pete, was submitted by UTEP physics professor Michael Blue…