Alec's 100th Birthday
Alec's 100th Birthday Party was a great success. Over 1,700 members of the UT community stopped by the ECJ plaza on Tuesday, April 1st to meet Alec and share his many birthday cakes. Take a look at all the pictures from the party.→
Who is Alec and why do we celebrate his birthday?
Alec, the patron saint of the College of Engineering was born of an undergraduate prank.
On April Fool's eve, 1908, a group of mischief-seeking sophomores "borrowed" a small wooden statue from a local tavern. The statue - a jovial beer-quaffing Dutchman - was carted off to campus, where student leaders dubbed him Alexander Frederick Claire, patron saint of UT Engineers. Over nearly 100 years, Alec has had his share of adventures; he's suffered kidnappings, amputations, even an arrest, followed by a pardon from Texas Governor James Ferguson. He's been repaired, de-commissioned, revived, replicated. And he has endured.
Those early youthful pranksters eventually graduated to distinguished engineering careers. Alec remained at the School, where he resides today, a timeless, lighthearted symbol of innovation and perseverance. In order to celebrate the tradition and creativity of Alec throughout the engineering community and to increase awareness about Alec and the Friends of Alec program, the annual Alec Building Contest was created in 2002.
Alec continues to "reappear" at engineering functions and was so inspiring that the Engineering Annual Giving Program was named after him (Friends of Alec). The School continues to celebrate Alec every year on April 1st by throwing him a birthday party, where the winner of the Alec Building Contest is announced.