The Bantam

Trinity's familiar mascot, the bantam, owes its origin to the Hon. Joseph Buffington, Class of 1875, a distinguished federal judge and trustee of the College. President Benjamin Harrison appointed him United States Judge to the Federal Court in Western Pennsylvania in 1892, and President Theodore Roosevelt named him to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 1904. At his retirement in 1938, Judge Buffington's 46 years on the Federal Bench earned him the distinction of having served longer than any judge in the history of United States courts at that time. He was noted as an exceptional after-dinner speaker, and his reply to the toast for Trinity at the spring 1899 annual dinner in Pittsburgh of the Princeton Alumni Association of Western Pennsylvania was an historic moment in the annals of the College's history.

Alumni of other colleges and universities were among the guests at the dinner, and before sharing his observations on the contributions Trinity was making to higher education and on what he considered the qualities of a Trinity student, Judge Buffington referred to his alma mater's competitiveness and spirit both on and off the playing field:

"They tell me that Trinity is in great company to-night [sic]," he noted. "That old John Harvard with the self-satisfied serenity which he generally carries in his clothes, is here; that old Eli Yale with his equal serenity of self-satisfaction has for this evening, at least, stopped telling everyone where he hails from, et omnia coetera, abides with you, and is going to spend a real modest evening; that the big tiger [is] good humored now that he is feasted [:] all unite to form an awe-inspiring collegiate trio. In the presence of these mighty chanticleers of the collegiate barnyard, I presume the Trinity bantam should feel outclassed, possibly if he took your estimate of your-selves and yours of him he would. But I tell you, my fellow chanticleers, that the Trinity bantam has been brought up in the Trinity barnyard on different principles, and the most marked outcome of his collegiate training is the fostering of a habit which leads him to size things from his own standpoint, and not have somebody else size them for him. The Trinity bantam ever feels that whatever company is fit for him to be at, he is entirely fit to be there, or as the Amherst man said in looking around a Trinity table "You Trinity fellows seem to fill your clothes." You will therefore understand, gentlemen, the spirit in which the Trinity bantam, game from comb to spur, crows at your door, hops in, shakes his tail feathers, and with a sociable nod to the venerable John, and a good natured "How d'ydo" to the ponderous old Elihu steps into the collegiate cock pit, makes his best bow to the tiger, says he is glad to be here, is not a whit abashed at your hugeness, [and] is satisfied with himself and his own particular coop."

Word of the bantam spread to the campus and among Trinity alumni, and Judge Buffington arranged to have his address printed for wider circulation. Within a short time, newspapers were referring to Trinity athletic teams as the Bantams, and the idea of the bantam as the College's mascot caught on. Since then the bantam has been used in Trinity publications, has appeared on pennants, buttons and sports paraphernalia, and in recent years has been a familiar figure at College events as well as at sports events and alumni reunions.