Little Dipper - Tennessee's first mascot, an English Cocker Spaniel??? Need help on this one.

#1
ptcarter

ptcarter

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#1
This is one of those stories that has many sketchy details. Maybe some of you can fill in the blanks. Here's what I know & how I learned it.

A friend of mine from UT school days wholesales building products in the Memphis area. His territory is also Mississippi. One day, he was in Columbus MS, and was talking to a cabinet maker from West Point MS. The subject of UT came up and the cabinet maker told him of how he was in the process of renovating an antebellum home in Columbus. There was an old graveyard in the back, and during a break in his work, he took a stroll through the graveyard. He came across the stone below.

1630679369915.png

When the cabinet maker inquired on the story, not much is known, but he did learn this. Apparently the owner of the dog was a good football player and Neyland wanted him on the team. It was just after WWII and this player drove to Knoxville with his dog. Neyland supposedly said "You can't have that dog up here with you", and the player told him - "Look, I had this dog in my plane during the war on all my missions. If he can't come to Knoxville, I won't come". Neyland said " Look's like we have a mascot".

I have no idea who this player was. So someone help me if you know anything. Also, I think Smoky started as mascot around '57, but not sure there.

Help me fill in the blanks. Interesting story, agree??
 
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#5
#5
sona said:
Monk Fowler was the owner. Lettered in 47. If you have facebook, search for this - "Little Dipper was another mascot, who saw considerable flight time during WW2"

That should set you off down the rabbit hole. My FB isn't active so I can't delve too deep right.

Monk Fowler shows up here on utsports.com - Football Career Statistics - F
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Sona - thanks, This sounds like something not well known, but needs to be. Appreciate it.

Edit: I am not good at using facebook. If someone else could find this, and paste it in that would be wonderful.
 
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#6
#6
ptcarter said:
Sona - thanks, This sounds like something not well known, but needs to be. Appreciate it.

Edit: I am not good at using facebook. If someone else could find this, and paste it in that would be wonderful.
Click to expand...

Facebook is a pain if you do not have an active account, which I do not. I can lead you to the person who posted about the pupper though, David Schwind. Try loading this post from him, it has an image of the gravestone.



This is the google cached text of the post, but I cannot view anything from this guy directly. If you can log in to FB, you should be able to.

"Little Dipper was another mascot, who saw considerable flight time during WW2 and later served as a civilian mascot as well. He's buried alongside his owner, CDR "Monk" Fowler."

This, I believe, is the author and military researcher who made the comment about "Little Dipper". You could try to contact him for more info. It is possible I have the wrong David Schwind but I think this is him :

https://www.warconvoys.com/contact
 
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#7
#7
sona said:
Facebook is a pain if you do not have an active account, which I do not. I can lead you to the person who posted about the pupper though, David Schwind. Try loading this post from him, it has an image of the gravestone.



This is the google cached text of the post, but I cannot view anything from this guy directly. If you can log in to FB, you should be able to.

"Little Dipper was another mascot, who saw considerable flight time during WW2 and later served as a civilian mascot as well. He's buried alongside his owner, CDR "Monk" Fowler."

This, I believe, is the author and military researcher who made the comment about "Little Dipper". You could try to contact him for more info. It is possible I have the wrong David Schwind but I think this is him :

https://www.warconvoys.com/contact
Click to expand...

Pretty amazing link there. Yes, I'll fire him off a message.
 
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#11
#11
sona said:
Fowler was apparently known for killing subs. Seems like a boss dude.
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That generation saw some things. Snowflakes were rare. My Dad was up there in the 30s, then he went on to war. Came back to UT on the GI bill. I scanned through the '47 yearbook. Two years after the war, and Neyland had noticeably aged - gray on the temples. Those years in the India/Burma theatre must have been difficult.
 
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#13
#13
ptcarter said:
David Swind replied to my message. He's sending me what he knows. I shared this thread with him and will share what he says here.
Click to expand...

Obit for Monk's wife 10 Jan 2013

Sarah Livingston Fowler, gracious in manner and steadfast in faith, died at her home. She was 87 years old.
Sarah was born Yazoo City to the late Samuel Hilary Livingston and Sarah Armstrong Livingston. Moving to Columbus in 1930, she graduated from Lee High School in 1943. After a year at Mississippi State College for Women, she enrolled at the University of Tennessee and graduated in 1947. She was a member of Delta Delta Delta and one of the "Seven Beauties of Tennessee." At UT, she met Navy Commander W.S. "Monk" Fowler, and they married in Columbus on December 20, 1947.

The Fowler's lived in Lexington, TN, Corinth, MS then moved to Kosciusko in 1950 after Monk Fowler and his father in law bought the Dr. Pepper Bottling Works. In 1972, the family moved to Lowndes County to continue the slow restoration of the Armstrong family home, Liberty Hall. The home, occupied by the Ervin-Armstrong family since it was built in 1832, was for many years part of the Columbus Pilgrimage. Her husband died in 1990, and her daughter Sarah Frances Fowler Hazard, died Feb 25, 2000.

"Monk", Cmdr US Navy WWII, Silver Star, Distinguished Service Cross, Gold Star, "King of the Sub Killers"

W S Fowler (1929-1990) - Find A Grave Memorial

I didn't know the first thing about William Sim "Monk" Fowler until this thread, turns out he and I share a common ancestor. He is a 7th Cousin.
 
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#14
#14
Morning all - I figured I'd join the forum and post up what I know instead of playing "telephone". :D

My part of the story is this: there were 217 US Navy and Coast Guard recipients of orders and medals from the USSR during WW2. After finding one at an auction in 1999, I did some preliminary research on them, but in 2012, I decided to write a book about each of the recipients. I know it's a very niche area and unknown to the vast majority of people, but I had the honor of telling the stories of each of the recipients, and recording the stories of the very few veterans who were left at the time. In the end, my writing resulted in the book "Blue Seas, Red Stars: Soviet Military Medals to U.S. Sea Service Recipients in World War II", published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd in 2015.

Since this was a very esoteric topic (and most of the recipients had passed on, even by that point) I created the book by tracking down the families of all 217 recipients. I successfully found families of 175 and visited 121 of them in person, driving 26,0000 miles and visiting 40 states (yes, I had a great job at the time where I could take considerable vacation time to get this done...wish I had one like that now!). My work on the book was the adventure of a lifetime, and I met people and saw places that very few people would ever have the opportunity to accomplish. I photographed medals and met with families in places ranging from basement rentals in an abandoned building to mind-blowing opulence. And the people I met ranged from backgrounds all across the board.

I was able to track down "Monk" (his actual name was Wilma Sim) Fowler's son, and during one of my trips got to go out to their family home. It was an incredible mansion literally in the backwoods of Mississippi (15 miles on red dirt roads just to get there!). I'm am very happy to hear that it's being restored as it was in pretty bad shape while I was there and it was a genuine historic landmark of a surviving southern home.

After photographing Monk's medals, his son took me out to the small family cemetery in front of the house (it may have been behind the house; but it was next to the road we drove to in order to get to the house). That's where Monk was buried, and alongside Monk was his dog, Little Dipper. Monk's son told me the story of Little Dipper (basically what's on this thread) and I thought it was neat enough to include it in the book.

I'm going to attach some files that show my write up for Monk Fowler in my book as well as some of the research I acquired for the book as well.

I hope this helps a bit and answers some of the questions!

Dave
 

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#17
#17
If you all have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I always enjoy being able to share some of the research I found...my intention for the book was to tell the stories of these brave men, so having the opportunity, even years later, is an honor for me.

An edit to add: one thing I learned from writing my book was that I never took enough photos. I was concentrating on taking photos of the medals for the book, but I never stopped to take photos of what was around me. In retrospect, I should have taken photos of the house, the dirt road, all the things that were part of the story...but I didn't. I figured I'd always remember those things, but even eight years later, memories fade and without having photos to back them up, they either adjust themselves to fit my own perception of events, or are often forgotten. So...if I could give a piece of advice...photos are free. Take a bunch to capture the memories for years to come. :)
 
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#19
#19
Bill - go for it! Thanks!

I'm surprised there aren't more photos on his Find a Grave memorial (if I had more time, I'd go through all of the memorials for these fellows and update them with photos...but alas...someday...)
 
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#25
#25
sona said:
Monk Fowler was the owner. Lettered in 47. If you have facebook, search for this - "Little Dipper was another mascot, who saw considerable flight time during WW2"

That should set you off down the rabbit hole. My FB isn't active so I can't delve too deep right.

Monk Fowler shows up here on utsports.com - Football Career Statistics - F
Click to expand...
Great story. I saw some games in 1947, but I don’t remember the mascof. I was nine at the time so I guess I was more interested in the game.
 
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