I first encountered the Saltine Warrior sculpture when my father took me to S.U. football games at Archibold Stadium. It was Ernie Davis's first varsity season, the year S.U. won the National Championship. The sculpture was in a prominent location on University Place which I tried to walk by every game on the way to the stadium. The warrior exemplified the spirit of excellence in Syracuse athletics.

When the “Saltine Warrior” was discontinued from the role as a sports mascot, the statue was relocated to a sculpture court elsewhere on the campus, which is where I rediscovered it some years later. Reconnecting with it inspired the creation of my haiku.

More recently the sculpture has been moved to a location on the Shaw Quadrangle in front of the Carnegie Library.

Looking back, I wish the University and Onondaga Nation had been able to jointly develop an honorable and regal depiction of a mascot for the S.U. athletics program.