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Harold “Spider” Burke started his college career at Rolla,
Posted on: October 20, 2023 at 22:24:59 CT
SSN 780 MU
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and joined the Army during the Korean War. When he mustered out, he transferred to Mizzou and joined the Beta Gamma Chapter of Kappa Sigma, having been initiated by the chapter in Rolla. His nickname “Spider” was based on the legendary DJ “Spider” Burke on the r&b radio station KATZ in East St. Louis. After graduating in 1954, he rejoined the Army and retired as a Major in the Corps of Engineers.
On his first trip back on Mizzou’s campus, he joined his fellow Kappa Sig alumni to celebrate their fraternity brother, Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, who was honored as the Grand Marshal of the Homecoming Parade. The inspiration for Beetle, Bill Rulon, was also in attendance. Back in the ‘50’s, fraternity pledges were routinely ordered to lay down on the pavement to save an open parking spot on campus for actives. Rulon was notorious for falling asleep while saving a spot, or really just about anywhere, and the legend of Beetle Bailey was born as a feature in the Show Me campus magazine. Walker later had Beetle get drafted and the comic strip became syndicated.
Spider wore his old cheerleader outfit to the reunion to prove that he could still fit in it. His fellow alums talked Spider into getting down on the track to lead cheers, and TBH it didn’t take much persuasion.
What a lot of folks didn’t know about Spider was that he always had a rope of twist tobacco in his pocket and a bite of it in his mouth, sometimes even when he was leading cheers. He was pure country, living in St. Louis, working for BiState during the week and going back to Rolla for the weekends. When he finally retired, he moved to Joplin.
As the guy responsible for the chapters in the state of Missouri, I had the honor of appointing Spider as the Alumnus Advisor to the Kappa Sig chapter at Washington U, whose members were almost 95% from the east coast and mostly Jewish. After introducing Spider to the brothers, we socialized for a while, during which time, he had convinced every single member of the chapter to take a bite of twist, and he taught them to be careful to spit out the tobacco juice before taking their next drink of beer. It was a sight to behold to look around the room and see all of these eastern intellectuals with a little styrofoam cup for their juice and a Solo cup for their beer.
As we were leaving the chapter house after the evening’s get together was over, Spider turned to me and said “I think I can work with these boys alright”, and he sure did. That old country boy had charmed those easterners completely.
On his first trip back on Mizzou’s campus, he joined his fellow Kappa Sig alumni to celebrate their fraternity brother, Mort Walker, creator of Beetle Bailey, who was honored as the Grand Marshal of the Homecoming Parade. The inspiration for Beetle, Bill Rulon, was also in attendance. Back in the ‘50’s, fraternity pledges were routinely ordered to lay down on the pavement to save an open parking spot on campus for actives. Rulon was notorious for falling asleep while saving a spot, or really just about anywhere, and the legend of Beetle Bailey was born as a feature in the Show Me campus magazine. Walker later had Beetle get drafted and the comic strip became syndicated.
Spider wore his old cheerleader outfit to the reunion to prove that he could still fit in it. His fellow alums talked Spider into getting down on the track to lead cheers, and TBH it didn’t take much persuasion.
What a lot of folks didn’t know about Spider was that he always had a rope of twist tobacco in his pocket and a bite of it in his mouth, sometimes even when he was leading cheers. He was pure country, living in St. Louis, working for BiState during the week and going back to Rolla for the weekends. When he finally retired, he moved to Joplin.
As the guy responsible for the chapters in the state of Missouri, I had the honor of appointing Spider as the Alumnus Advisor to the Kappa Sig chapter at Washington U, whose members were almost 95% from the east coast and mostly Jewish. After introducing Spider to the brothers, we socialized for a while, during which time, he had convinced every single member of the chapter to take a bite of twist, and he taught them to be careful to spit out the tobacco juice before taking their next drink of beer. It was a sight to behold to look around the room and see all of these eastern intellectuals with a little styrofoam cup for their juice and a Solo cup for their beer.
As we were leaving the chapter house after the evening’s get together was over, Spider turned to me and said “I think I can work with these boys alright”, and he sure did. That old country boy had charmed those easterners completely.
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Harold “Spider” Burke started his college career at Rolla, - SSN 780 MU - 10/20 22:24:59
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