UCI Libraries, Special Collections and Archives recently had a chance to sit down with Schuyler Hadley Bassett and conduct an oral history interview. Bassett was part of UCI’s first freshman class when the school’s doors first opened in 1965.   Although he did not come up with the initial idea of the anteater mascot, he spearheaded the successful campaign that decided on the anteater. In this interview he reminisces and retells the story forty-four years after the mascot election, which occurred in November of 1965.    Here is a segment from his interview.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBnMcWKei4I&hl=en&fs=1&]