Behind the Bulls: The origin of Main Street’s ‘Aggie Stampede’
Every November, eight colorful fiberglass bulls on Main Street don tutus around their 90-inch waists anticipating Cache Valley Civic Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.”
“It has been a fun way to draw attention to our performances,” said Christy Grove, the secretary for the board of directors and prop manager for the ballet company.
The bulls, affectionately known as the “Aggie Stampede,” were installed two years ago honoring the 40th anniversary of the Center for Persons with Disabilities.
“What we hoped to do was draw people to come and see the bulls,” said Shane Johnson, development officer for the CPD, “poke around, see what they’re about, get drawn to our website and see all the work that we’ve been doing the last 40 years.”
The center opened in 1972 as a school for students with disabilities and later turned into a place for research where people with disabilities can receive services, Johnson said.
“One of our mottos here is that disability is normal, that there’s nothing wrong with people that have disabilities; they’re just having a different life experience,” Johnson said. “Integrating them into schools is just a part of that whole philosophy.”
Johnson said the idea to use bull sculptures around the city came from looking at other similar projects around Utah.
“People were familiar with those types of projects, and lots of towns were having them,” Johnson said, “and so they wanted to have one, and we had an occasion coming up that we wanted to draw attention to, so we thought that would be a good way to do it.”
The shape for the bulls was inspired by the statue across from Aggie Stadium titled “Meet the Challenge,” and was modified to have broader surfaces for painting and to be more approachable and kid-friendly, Johnson said.
“We just wanted to draw attention to the many challenges that we’ve met here at the center for the last 40 years,” Johnson said. “That was the inspiration for it.”
Installed in 2012, the bulls were sponsored and decorated by local businesses, including the USU Charter Credit Union, Cache Valley Electric and Herm’s Inn. They are bolted to concrete slabs donated by the LeGrand Johnson Construction Company and were clear coated by the Logan Downtown Alliance.
“I think that most people like them. Its kind of a neat thing,” said Roger Rigby, the painting and advanced placement art teacher at Logan High School. “I’ve heard a few comments that they were neat for a minute and they wouldn’t mind if they left. I’d imagine you’d get about the same thing with just about anything you do with artwork in public.”
Not everyone understands the connection between the bulls and the center, Johnson said. To help people make the connection, a traveling bull that visits events and fairs was created with blackboard paint for chalk drawing.
“When we take our traveling bull out, some people are like, ‘Hey, that looks like the ones downtown.’ And that’s an opportunity for us to tell them, ‘It is like the ones downtown. They’re actually related,'” Johnson said.
The CPD provides direct services for people with disabilities of all ages, including a physician’s office, physical therapy and 70 different programs including early-intervention preschools and a lab dedicated to developing technology for people with disabilities.
“We even have a program now where we have the first class of students with intellectual disabilities that are attending Utah State in our program called Aggies Elevated,” Johnson said. “It’s Utah’s first post-secondary educational program for students with intellectual disabilities. Technically there’s about 200 or so programs across the country right now, but we estimate about 15 are doing what we’re doing.”
The center also provides technical support for government agencies that need to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act in about 16 states, Johnson said. They have advocates in the government involved in policy making who work on spreading awareness and helping police and fire departments know how to interact with persons with disabilities.
“It’s actually a really nice thing to have here in town,” Rigby said. “I have an autistic son who went there and was part of the A.S.S.E.R.T. program. There’s a preschool for children with disabilities, and it made a world of difference for my son.”
The A.S.S.E.R.T. program (Autism Support Services: Education, Research and Training) works with children with disabilities academically and helps get them ready for school, Rigby said.
Plaques next to the bulls identify the sponsor and artist of each as well as the CPD.
“I’m not sure how much people associate them with our center, which was kind of our idea,” Johnson said, “but I do think the community has embraced them as a quirky part, a fun part of Logan, and I think that’s great if we contributed to that. I love to see them engaging with them and putting the tutus on them.”
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