Fire Station 68 Logo
A Bit About Our Mascot, Yosemite Sam:
Let me add to the history on the patch. I started on the drawing when I was at 73's. The design was originally intended for Station 73. My cousin, Buster White and I drew the Yosemite Sam. Most of the guys thought that he was a pretty fitting character due to my "redass" nature. When I transferred to 68's I brought the drawing with me. Sam originally had bunker gear on but it just didn't look right so Buster changed it to the uniform he now wears.
Lloyd and I were trying to think of a good saying to go along with the design. I was sitting in the watch office at 68's one day and a commercial about NASCAR racing came on. The commercial showed a guy jamming the gears and "haulin' ass". The screen suddenly went black. Then a caption appeared that read: "Fueled By Fire, Driven By Courage". I had never seen that commercial before and haven't seen it since.
With the caption selected we were now ready to make some t-shirts. Everyone at 68's wanted to wear the shirts while on duty but the command staff had always frowned on such things. Lloyd Stone took the drawing and went downtown to obtain permission from the command staff to allow us to wear the design on t-shirts while on duty. His persistence paid off. Bob (Broussard?) made the first order of t-shirts, approx. 300.
Later, Steve Sanguedolce and Robert Castaneda did the hose that now surrounds him. The Texas flag was added by the "D" shift. We took the artwork to Athletic Designs, Inc. at 8800 Bissonnet to have some decals made for the apparatus. ADI makes all the helmet decals for the National Football League's teams. Chris, the owner of Athletic Decals, added the Maltese cross at the top.
Write-Up By: Captain Russell Harris - "A"-Shift
