OC History: Students used to race elephants at Cal State Fullerton

Imagine, you’re going to college and your campus is about to put on a major sporting event where other schools from across the country will be participating. It’s not football or basketball, think bigger. It’s an elephant race. In 1962 Cal State Fullerton, then known as Orange County State College, hosted what was referred to as “The First Intercollegiate Elephant Race in Human History.” But how did this come to be, you ask? There’s a few tales about how the idea originated. Some say it was because Ernest Becker, the Dean of Students, had jokingly written “elephant races” as an example on a new club form and students ran with the idea. Others say the idea came after the dean shared a story from his time in India earning his doctorate where a prince had gifted the Coast Guard with an elephant as a thank you gift for saving his son. One thing led to another and a few Orange County State College students hatched the plan to challenge the Coast Guard to an elephant race, which the dean OK’d because he never thought they’d get an elephant. One way or another the elephant races were a go, and word spread quickly. While finding elephants in Southern California for the race might have seemed like an obstacle in itself, the students took advantage of the fact that Hollywood was the capital of the entertainment industry and there were likely elephants in the area that had been brought in to film for movies. The story goes that the students reached out to Jungleland, a theme park in Thousand Oaks that rented its animals to the movie industry. Jungleland told them not to worry about it and they had the elephants they needed for the race. The race took place on the “Day of the Titan” celebration on May 11, 1962. While the Coast Guard was originally going to be the main competitor of the race, they pulled out. Instead, colleges from across the country partook, including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Caltech and the nearby Cal State Long Beach. The event was overseen by Marines from the El Toro Marine Air Station to help control the crowds. It’s said that 10, 000 people came to the campus to watch what was called the “Dumbo Downs” on a converted cornfield in Fullerton. There were 15 elephants racing that day and supposedly one elephant tortoise, which came in last. Additionally, the event made national headlines and many more tuned in to watch on TV. The races made the Associated Press’ top 10 stories of the year list and even Walter Cronkite covered it on the evening news. However, part of the reason it became so talked about was that one elephant went off course. A mother elephant became agitated and abandoned the race, running back to the makeshift barn where her baby was. Spectators scattered to get out of the elephant’s way, and luckily, no one was seriously injured, although there were reports of someone’s foot getting stepped on. Joe Russin from Harvard won the first year. The following year, a second elephant race took place at the Los Alamitos Race Course. That was the end of the elephant races until the campus decided in 1991 to recreate the event, only this time with just 3 elephants and participants, including campus President Milton Gordon, who came in second. RELATED: Titans’ elephant tradition is ancient history Today the elephant races are remembered in two ways: Tuffy the Titan, the school’s elephant mascot, and the Dumbo Downs parking lot, named after the original name of the elephant races. Additionally, in spring 2025, Cal State Fullerton put on an elephant race yet again, but a little different from the inaugural event. Instead of featuring actual elephants, the race was made up of students wearing inflatable elephant costumes and racing across campus. Read more Orange County History OC History: John Wayne Airport was once home to Drag Races OC History: Doritos and Boysenberries both have ties to Orange County theme parks OC History: How the Balboa Island Ferry changed Newport Beach OC History: The legend of San Juan Capistrano’s Motorcycle Hill OC History: Paul Frank created the 2000s icon Julius the Monkey OC History: Lion Country Safari in Irvine was an accident waiting to happen.
https://www.ocregister.com/2025/11/18/oc-history-students-used-to-race-elephants-at-cal-state-fullerton/

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