Recently, I’ve been completely enamored by the history of our mascot, Wally Wabash. After seeing the beautiful, well-crafted papier-mâché head from the 1970s, I thought, “What came before this rendition? Who created Wally Wabash?”
All of us know Wally Wabash. He’s that smiling, gung-ho guy with a letter sweater and an attitude that screams, “Bring it on.” But fewer of us know the man who gave Wally his voice — his expression, charm, and ability to reflect what it means to be a Wabash man. That man was Don Cole. And what he created wasn’t just a mascot — it was a mirror.
Don Cole ’52 was the kind of student many of us aspire to be: Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude, first in comps. But even with all those academic accolades, he found time to pour himself into creativity. He found humor in the day-to-day. More importantly, he shared it with all of Wabash.
“Wabash is not an easy place.” We say that all the time, and we mean it. But somehow, in the middle of all the chaos — the studying, the tradition, the intensity — there’s always been room for laughter. For wit. For someone to step back and help us see it differently. That someone, for an entire generation, was Don Cole.
His early cartoons in The Caveman captured student life with such honesty that even now, more than 70 years later, they still feel authentic. You can look at one of his panels and think, “Yeah… that’s still us.” That’s the power of someone who truly understood this place.
Then, right after graduation, the world called him elsewhere. Cole was drafted into the Army in 1952, and you’d think that would be the end of the cartooning chapter. But he didn’t hang up his pencil. He took it with him and brought Wally (now cleverly redrawn as “MP Dooty”) along for the ride. What started as a side project became a major part of military police training. His illustrations were used in pamphlets and film strips, and his humor became a teaching tool.
That’s what makes Don Cole’s legacy special. It was not just the ink on paper or the laughs in the margins but also how he lived out the Wabash spirit through creativity, service, and a deep understanding of people. His art didn’t just entertain. It connected. It allowed others to breathe, laugh, and feel seen.
We live in a time where things move fast. Where it’s easy to forget. But Cole’s work stands still in the best way — it invites us to pause. To notice. To remember that we’re not the first to wrestle with what it means to be here.
Wabash always fights, and, sometimes, Wabash laughs, too.