Editors Note: This article is from Sept. 29, 1939. This was published when UNI was the Iowa State Teachers College. 

Remember Allie? Allie was an alligator, and he lived for many years in the old greenhouse. Allie furnished young reporters with inches of copy. Once, he even became so ambitious that he left his green house home and trod (do alligators tread?) the sidewalks of our fair campus, sending shrieking coeds scurrying for cover, which is not surprising in  view of the fact that an eight foot alligator is some what removed form his natural habitat when on the sidewalks of an Iowa college.

And what happened to Allie? “Tis a sad, sad story. The powers that be, decreed that Iowa State Teachers college should have a new greenhouse, which was well and good. All was not well and good, however, for it soon became apparent that there would be no home for Allie in the new structure. The College Eye editor pleaded. Fond admirers of Allie remonstrated. All was in vain. There simply was no room for Allie. On the nineteenth day of July, 1938, within one month of his thirty-fourth birthday, poor Allie was removed from this world. There would no longer be any Allie to provide copy for reporters. Visitors would no longer be shown this curiosity. Allie was gone. 

But take heed, you who sorrow! Allie now has-no, not one, but – two successors, Ike and Mike. Ike and Mike came to live at Iowa State Teachers college last June and are now very happily situated in the biological laboratory of the greenhouse. They came from a man in Davenport. They are not twins, but are so nearly identical that they were given twin names. They are 12 years old, approximately two feet long, and still growing. They apparently have no realization of the danger which lies in becoming too large. Perhaps they should be informed of Allie’s fate and adopt a reducing diet.