On Campus
The early Beetle Bailey strips were set at Rockview University, which closely resembled Mort Walker’s alma mater, the University of Missouri. Here is an aerial view of the quad at Rockview from a strip dated November 7, 1950.
The University of Missouri campus looks like this today.
The Columns at Francis Quadrangle are all that remain from a fire that destroyed the original Academic Hall on Jan. 9, 1892.
During the second week of the strip, Beetle and his girlfriend Buzz attended a pep rally and a football game at Rockview. Beetle’s buddy Sweatsock was a player on the team.
Memorial Stadium, the original University of Missouri football facility, was dedicated on October 2, 1926 to 112 alumni and students who lost their lives in World War I.
In 1927, a group of freshman students, using leftover rocks from the original construction of Memorial Stadium, built an “M” in the north end zone.
This is what the renamed Farout Field looked like after it was renovated in 2012.
Future posts will share more about the early history of Beetle Bailey so stay tooned.
– Brian Walker