After hiding away locked in the back of the art closet for years, an old staple of Texas High was scheduled for a makeover. The marquee tiger that was hidden away is in the works of returning, with just as much excitement as there was 54 years ago. 

Last year, the Lighthouse Leadership team had been thinking of ways to spruce up our campus, and the old tiger was brought up. His location was undetermined and many rumors of where he was seemed to be proven untrue. He was a lost hope to many, until teacher and Lighthouse Leadership member Katie Williams decided to go on the hunt for him.

“I ended up finding him in the art storage room on campus, he was in decent condition considering his age,” Williams said. “When I found him he had a large hole near his neck, which needed to be sanded down and a fresh coat of paint.” 

Texas High was the first school in East Texas to have a Marquee sign, especially with a huge tiger on top. They saw this opportunity and went to work with the restoration of this old tiger, who brought so many memories to this school. 

“We knew the tiger needed to be fixed, and with help from welding teacher Mr. Hamilton to fix the hole, and with help from Mrs. Phillips and her advanced classes for a fresh coat of paint,” Williams said. 

Now that the restoration of the tiger was set in place, the tiger’s new location had to be decided. This was a hard decision because the tiger was taken down for the reason of it being a target for rival schools to vandalize. The new location of the tiger will be on the Tiger Baseball scoreboard.

“The tiger’s new home is going to be harder to access to avoid getting damaged by rival schools, and will be an exciting way to repurpose and relive the history of the marquee tiger,” Williams said. “The teamwork that was put into this tiger by different parts of the school made the journey of remodeling the tiger even more special.”