The representative from Dr. Raines's office walked slowly,carefully cupping a black and gray urn with both hands. A goldplacard on the urn's lid read "TOM I, 1973-1992."
Forget the 3,500-square-foot, $300,000 Collierville home of TOMII. This is where mascots go when they die.
Grand designs for a final resting place for The University ofMemphis's original Bengal tiger mascot never materialized,according to University of Memphis and Highland Hundredsources.
"The Highland Hundred (the organization that cares for themascots) has not been approached for any assistance in the erectionof a statue," said Scott Forman of the booster organization.
Initial plans called for a monument with a statue of TOMreclining on top of it. Other plans held for a more menacing TOM,raised on his hind legs.
The urn holding the remains were to be placed in a cornerstoneof the structure, said Ray Daniels, former president of theHighland Hundred.
"There's just not much money right now for that sort of thing,"he said.
Bobby Wharton, current Highland Hundred president, said theefforts for the monument failed because of a lack offund-raising.
"People like to talk and bring up suggestions, but they don'tput their money where their mouth is," he said. "If the money couldbe raised, The University would do it."
University administration made tentative plans for a monumenthousing TOM's ashes on the Alumni Mall, in front of theAdministration Building, but for financial reasons, the monumentwas never built.
After TOM died of kidney failure at the age of 19 on Feb. 291992, students approached the Alumni Association with the idea oferecting a statue honoring the tiger, Forman said.
The Memphis Zoo cremated the animal and placed the ashes in theurn that now resides in U of M President Shirley Raines's office,Forman said. The urn traveled from the Security Office to theAthletic Office before former University President V. Lane Rawlinsplaced the urn in his office.
The Highland Hundred acquired TOM from a Michigan City, Ind.,zoo and presented him to The University on Nov. 11, 1972.
That's TOM's official past, but Gabrielle Maxey, communicationsspecialists with The U of M's Marketing and Communications Office,said all sorts of rumors have circulated about the animal'sashes.
One urban myth employed the urn as a doorstop for someone'soffice. Another held that the zoo, rather than cremate TOM, wantedto sell the mascot's pelt. Even the cost of the proposed monumentis speculated in myth, ranging from $20,000 to $100,000.
