Friday, November 22, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3
Statue has colorful past
By STEVE NAFUS Kansan Staff Writer
This year Jimmy Green offers oranges to passers-by; in years past he has been more colorful and less generous.
Nearly every student at the University of Kansas knows that at least once a year the statue of James Woods Green is painted the hue of his last name. But this year, "Uncle Jimmy" has been left alone by the frustrated artist-types.
Harry M. Buchholz, superintendent of Buildings and Ground's physical plant, called this the best year his men have ever had. There have been a few incidents, but none have been too vicious.
During the Red Cross blood drive on campus, Uncle Jimmy wore a Red Cross banner, Buchholz said. Then he added, "I fully expect Uncle Jimmy to carry an orange the rest of the year." Buchholz explained that
his men have removed the orange several times already, but it keeps reappearing.
In the early years, only engineering students painted the landmark in front of the law school—and then only on St. Patrick's Day. This practice stems from the Great St. Patty's Day Row of 1892. It seems that on the fateful day 76 years ago, the engineers wore green ribbons on their hats and the lawyers contrived to remove the ribbons.
By the mid-1940's some sharp-witted KU students began to paint the statue and blame it on marauding K-Stataters. This is when tradition began to give way to mere vandalism and now Buchholz thinks the statue is painted "at the drop of a hat."
Over the years Uncle Jimmy has been painted almost every color by almost every method. The statue was once given white shoes, red pants, green coat, blue vest and a white tie. Ordinarily the campus police do not allow time for such fancy work, so many painters have found it worthwhile to merely splash paint on the statue and run.
Hawk it to Mizzou
Uncle Jimmy was voluntarily cleaned by students apparently only once. In 1945 a harem of independent women cleaned and oiled the statue from top to bottom. It was painted again four days later. In 1950 Uncle Jimmy was tarred and feathered. A large replica of a slide rule was fastened around his feet with a chain and four padlocks.
Uncle Jimmy has ignored the paint, weather, beer buckets in his hands, cigars in his mouth and Red Cross banners across his shoulders. Now he has oranges to ignore.
Buchholz termed Uncle Jimmy a "working statue. We just let him weather—that is when he is the most beautiful. B & G only cleans Jimmy after he has been painted, all other times he is allowed to become beautiful." Buchholz said.
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