Poster Image

Statue of a man with one knee bent, back bent forward, head looking upwards and an arm pointing a bow toward a starry sky

$20

Item#: 2016SYR10

Purchase Details

11x17-inches, printed on heavy weight (100-pound) Hammermill cover paper. We package each print with a piece of chipboard in a clear plastic sleeve.

You also receive…

An information page with photos of the artist and poet, and hand-written comments from each.

Medium- and large-format posters are available by custom order. Contact us for details.

Poem Inspiration Location

Secluded glory

poster information

Description

Secluded glory
Red and orange tradition
Saltine bow poised taut

I first encountered the Saltine Warrior sculpture when my father took me to S.U. football games at Archibold Stadium. It was Ernie Davis's first varsity season, the year S.U. won the National Championship. The sculpture was in a prominent location on University Place which I tried to walk by every game on the way to the stadium. The warrior exemplified the spirit of excellence in Syracuse athletics.

When the “Saltine Warrior” was discontinued from the role as a sports mascot, the statue was relocated to a sculpture court elsewhere on the campus, which is where I rediscovered it some years later. Reconnecting with it inspired the creation of my haiku.

More recently the sculpture has been moved to a location on the Shaw Quadrangle in front of the Carnegie Library.

Looking back, I wish the University and Onondaga Nation had been able to jointly develop an honorable and regal depiction of a mascot for the S.U. athletics program.

I've always loved the Saltine Warrior. It's got such a great, impossible pose. I wanted to be faithful to the original.

I also wanted my illustration to relate to the university. I love Syracuse, and I wanted to give back somehow. This seemed like a nice way to do it.

Before I came to school here, I'd never taken art classes. I didn't know what I wanted to do. Then I took some illustration courses here and things just clicked! So I owe a lot to this program.