I was recounting the story and previous postings to a bunch of my ski club buddies at a Happy Hour and one of my best friends sat there laughing. I said what I knew and then he told the rest of the story. He was one of the perps, allegedly, of course!

It was November, 1962, and a few of them took their pickup truck to VMI. They were bigger than the VMI guys who were with the animal so it was easy to overpower them. They put the kangaroo in the back seat of the truck and it was very docile and happy. They had to sneak it into a storage room and move it depending on who was inspecting the floors. His entire squadron knew but kept it a secret.

Then VMI came down and kidnapped a Cadet. The big exchange took place before the game in Victory Stadium in Roanoke. And it's true that the Cadet had his ankles and wrists duct taped as each hostage hopped across the field. My friend and his buddies had full-dress study hours every evening for 6 weeks but the Seniors thought it was so funny, it wasn't heavily enforced.

He said VMI probably had more trouble with the Cadet than they had with the kangaroo.

It was a detail I never would have known about him had I not sold my extra tix to a man who randomly told me about it during last week's game and telling my friend that I posted about it on TSL.