With Finals Week just around the corner, students are doing the most to prepare, including taking a chance at luck.
Throwing pinecones for good luck before midterms and final exams have been a tradition for University of Wyoming students since the installation of the copper Tyrannosaurus Rex, aka “Rexie” by Professor Samuel H. “Doc” Knight in 1964. However, there are clear signs that the tradition is fading out.
“Orientation was all online, it wasn’t even Zoom, it was a Canvas Module. I didn’t even know that that [pinecone tossing] was a thing! I’m going to do it, cause I need the luck,” Candace Konija, a Pre-Pharmacy sophomore said. “I don’t think it’s about luck, but I might be wrong!”
While Konija believes a hard work ethic is the key to success in college, she describes how COVID-19 impacted her learning skills and how she may need to rely on a little bit of luck this semester.
“I don’t know about other students, [but] my entire freshman year was online. That was how I started. I did not develop good habits in my first year,” Konija explained. “And everyone says that freshman year is really difficult because you are adjusting, but it was even worse, I feel. Even when you do get in-person, where are your study skills? Where is your motivation? Your work ethic?”
While Konija may have started online and continues to navigate classes, campus, and some UW traditions in-person, Psychology senior Keyal Cantu notes that the tradition will die out without student awareness.
“I think since the last class that was here for a full year was my class, my freshman year, I think if we – us, as seniors – go around saying go throw pinecones at Rexie, we could get that tradition started up again,” Cantu said. “If not, it possibly could die, or they may even start something new.”
Outside of UW’s traditional wellness and stress reduction programs implemented during this time, it seems that the pinecone toss is more about bringing people together than it is about luck.
“I did it during midterms of my freshman year. I, personally, don’t think it did anything, but it was the least something fun to do with my friends,” Cantu said.
Cantu also notes that social media plays a critical role in student involvement right now, and platforms like Instagram or Facebook may be the only thing preventing the tradition from going extinct. When asked if students were to start a new tradition, Cantu references the Benjamin Franklin statue as a starting point.
“There used to be googly eyes on his eyes, but they took them off,” Cantu recalls from her sophomore year. Additionally, Cantu noted how the statue used to be adorned with necklaces and even given a pumpkin as an offering during harvest.
Dr. Laura Vietti, UW Geological Museum & Collections Manager, shared some of her favorite facts about the piece including the two mysteries about the piece. The first is that the original scale model for Rexie remains missing from the Geology Museum, and the second is that the lore of Rexie’s luck spawned out of student impromptu in the 1970s.
“The lore predates me and even my predecessor. I think as long as it is perpetrated through alumni and the Campus Visitor Center, it will be here forever,” Vietti said.
