High school football teams now use smoke machines and inflatable tunnels to enter a stadium on game night.
But the most dramatic entrance of any team in Orange County history did not need special effects. Sixty years ago, the Little Cypress High players were led by a live American black bear named Honey.
Russell Baker Sr., who is now 97, was Honey’s trainer and handler. He said the Little Cypress High used the mascot and colors of Baylor University. “Everything about us (Little Cypress) was exactly like Baylor,” he said.
When Baylor had a spare young bear, the college offered it to the Little Cypress booster club.
Baker now lives in a town outside of Lafayette and told stories about Honey in a phone interview. His memories of the bear are clear and match with his storytelling skills.
“I trained horses, animals and dogs and kids,” he said. His two sons went to Little Cypress in those days before the school district combined with Mauriceville. They begged him to train the bear.
He recalled that when Honey arrived in a cage, the bottom of the cage came off when a group of men unloaded it. She escaped and climbed a tree. But she had a chain around her neck and he wasn’t concerned. He let her go a way up the tree and then pulled the chain. She came tumbling down and she learned who was boss.
He spent time with the young bear and trained her to follow his hand commands. She was so well-behaved that he could take her to games and outings without a chain or rope.
Honey lived in a cage on his land along the Orange-Newton county border. She ate eight to 10 pounds of mule feed a day plus a case of lettuce and four loaves of bread, which he bought day-old.
“Whatever went in, came out,” Baker said. Her cage needed constant cleaning. His sons helped with that chore “until they discovered girls,” he said. Honey also was brushed and groomed every day.
The Little Cypress Booster Club had accepted Honey, but they never took responsibility for her, Baker said. “They wouldn’t even buy day-old bread to feed her.” He and his family ended up with all the responsibility.
Honey and Baker became celebrities in the community. Everyone wanted to pet the bear and see her up close. One particular boy is still in Baker’s memory and on the phone, his voice gets choked as if holding back tears when he tells the story.
“A man brought a little boy up and he was blind,” Baker said. The child wanted to pet Honey. “She was so good with him. She rolled over and let him touch her all over.” The boy felt her face, her paws, and her belly.
Honey’s career as a high school mascot ended after an encounter with another boy, Baker said. The boy liked to have Honey follow him around by giving her a piece of candy. However, the bear figured out the boy kept a bag of candy in his pocket. One day, she decided to try to get the candy bag out of his pocket. Baker said the boy’s mother got upset at the bear pawing at her son.
The incident may have ended Honey’s mascot career a bit early, but it wasn’t destined to last. The Texas UIL in the late 1960s banned high schools from keeping live mascots during games.
Honey stayed as the Baker family pet in a special pen on their land along the Orange-Newton county border. Baker said she lived to be 18 years old. The National Federation of Wildlife reports black bears in captivity usually live to be about 20.
Honey was buried behind a tree on Baker’s property in Orange County. She is still a legend in Little Cypress.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
Social Media