Dr Pepper and Baylor University make Waco proud

Popular soft drink brand Dr Pepper was born in Waco, Texas, in 1885, and the beverage has been a popular choice of students at Baylor University in Waco ever since.

In 1841, delegates to the Union Baptist Association meeting voted to adopt the suggestion of the Rev. William Milton Tryon and Judge R. E. B. (Robert Emmett Bledsoe) Baylor to establish a Baptist university in Texas, then an independent republic. A site on the Brazos River was selected near a former Texas Ranger fort that was built in 1837.

 Judge Baylor

Some wished to name the new university “San Jacinto,” in honor of the battle fought in 1836 when Texans led by Gen. Sam Houston won the decisive victory over Mexican army commanded by Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna.

Before the final vote in the Texas legislature, petitioners requested the university be named in honor of Baylor, and so it was. Baylor was chartered in 1845, and it is one of the first U.S. educational institutions established west of the Mississippi River.

Now, with an on-campus enrollment of 20,824, Baylor ranks as the largest private Baptist college in the world.

 

Every Tuesday afternoon between 3-5 p.m., Baylor students are welcome to attend “Dr Pepper Hour” and enjoy a frosty Dr Pepper float made with vanilla ice cream.

 

It’s a tradition that began in 1953 in the Barfield Drawing Room of the Student Union Building on Baylor’s campus. It was the idea of Marie Wiley Mathis, an assistant dean of student affairs, who hosted a weekly gathering to promote fellowship among Baylor students.

 

Except…it started with Coca-Cola and not Dr Pepper. That all changed in 1997, when Dr Pepper became Baylor’s “official soft drink.” At some point, Blue Bell Creameries, founded in 1907 in Brenham, Texas, became Baylor’s “official ice cream.”

Dr Pepper and Blue Bell have since teamed up to sponsor Baylor’s “Pepper Hour Tour,” which literally takes the show on the road to high schools throughout Texas and neighboring states. 

A Baylor-branded “Dr Pepper Hour” truck-and-trailer combo arrives outside the designated high school just prior to afternoon dismissal. When the bell rings, free Dr Pepper “float kits” are distributed to the high schoolers. 

Each contains everything that’s needed to mix up a float – a Baylor-branded cup, a small container of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream and a can of Dr Pepper.

 

A pit crew of Baylor admissions ambassadors goes along for the ride in hopes of recruiting the “best and the brightest” to apply for admission to the university.

Blue Bell’s history deserves more than a footnote. The company was organized by local businessmen as the Brenham Creamery Company in 1907, but it struggled financially until 1919, when E. F. Kruse was hired as manager. He was a 23-year-old schoolteacher at the time.

Kruse turned down an offer to become a school superintendent, because the creamery job “presented more opportunity for reward.”

He changed the name of the company in 1930 to Blue Bell Creameries, naming it after the Texas bluebell, a species of wildflowers that is abundant throughout the state.

 

Kruse and his family made the claim: “The milk we use is so fresh it was grass only yesterday.”

 

In 1977, Blue Bell adopted its familiar logo depicting a young girl leading a cow named “Belle.” Illustrator Jerry Jeanmard said his drawing of the girl has never changed, but the cow has been modified, because his original artwork “was not anatomically correct.”

 

“I knew what a girl looked like, but obviously, I didn’t know what a dairy cow looked like,” he said jokingly.

Blue Bell ice cream products are now sold in 23 states, including North Carolina. The company ranks No. 3 in the nation in ice cream sales volume.