It was like a cross between a pep rally and Animal House, the assembly of more than 100 students who gathered around the newly-transplanted Idol at Achilles Rink last Thursday night.
Union's most boisterous welcomed the reborn deity — now something of a sports guardian — by singing, chanting, carrying torches, and wearing togas.
Featured performers included freshman bagpiper Alex Bartholomew (in full regalia), the Dutch Pipers and Garnet Minstrelles, Student Forum President Manny Cunanan (dressed in
field hockey uniform, with skirt), Prof. Scott Scullion (in academic regalia, reciting an
original work — in Latin — “Prayer to the Transferred Idol” ) and senior Jesse
Shafer (in toga, translating Scullion's words “for the benefit of our neighbors to
the east who do not enjoy the benefits of a liberal education”).
To end the ceremony, team captains doused the statue in paint and per tradition spread
the paint around the Idol (and each other) with their hands. The event was captured by no
fewer than three local television news stations, which featured it on their 11 p.m.
broadcasts.
The 8-foot tall Idol is an ancient Chinese statue of a lion and cub. It was donated to
the College by an alumnus, the Rev. Jacob Farnham, in 1870. Almost from the moment it
arrived, painting the Idol has been a ritual for students. Moved several times during its
stay at Union, the Idol most recently had been in the courtyard where the new F.W. Olin
Center will be built.
Getting the Idol to its new home was no easy matter. After an eight-ton crane failed to
lift the statue, an 80-ton version was called in for the job. Crane operator Lew Sanders
estimated the weight of the object at 10,361 pounds, about 7,000 of which is the buried
base. After a ride on a flatbed truck, the Idol was lowered to its current resting place
just south of the rink.
Prayer to the Transferred Idol (Precatio Idoli Translati): “Oh sacred Idol,
whatever form of beast you may be, rest here as our defense and gracious glory. With your
hideous face and the ever changing radiant glow of a painted trollop, see to it that no
person in the world may know hunger and that college men and women may not know thirst.
Protect our warriors on the fields of battle and malevolently curse the denizens of
RPI.” Audience response: Hoc precamur! (This we pray!)