WE MAY BE A CATHOLIC COLLEGE, but the Easter Bunny sometimes plays as big a role here as anywhere else.
Mr. Bunny was front and center on March 9, 1951, when a few fraternity pranksters (thought to be from the Mount's brother school, Loyola University) "borrowed" the 10-foot, 300-pound plaster statue from in front of a store on fashionable Wilshire Boulevard and hauled him up to the Chalon Campus in the early hours of the morning.
Students arrived to see a giant rabbit in top hat and tails by the flagpole in the Circle. Police were duly alerted, and the investigating officers posed with the "hot" rabbit and a couple dozen smiling Mounties. The wandering bunny was then returned to his rightful home.
Our occasional pen-pal Beverly Halpin Carrigan '52 remembers this incident well. She reminds us that it was the year after the movie Harvey came out (in which Jimmy Stewart's best friend is a 6'3" invisible rabbit), and theaters featured giant rabbits in their lobbies.
So this Easter Bunny wasn't the only oversized, overdressed rabbit with a starring role that year. A happy, blessed Easter to all!
Postscript: Read about the missing Loyola Lion a few weeks later.
Postscript: Read about the missing Loyola Lion a few weeks later.