Bronze Buffalo Moving to New Home On North Campus

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Universitiy at Buffalo's life-sized bronze buffalo, housed in the lobby of Alumni Arena since its unveiling last October, is moving this week to a permanent home on a new plaza on Coventry Circle, adjacent to Alumni Arena and the Center for the Arts on the North (Amherst) Campus.

The plaza will be dedicated in a ceremony at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30, that will wrap up the celebration of the university's sesquicentennial, for which the bronze buffalo was created. A brass plaque commemorating the opening of the plaza will be unveiled as part of the ceremony.

Prior to the ceremonial opening of the plaza, a procession of UB students and parents will march from the new-student picnic at the Student Union to Coventry Circle.

The plaza was built by Ciminelli Development Company/ADF Construction Corp., which donated the cost of construction.

It features a lighted, raised platform on which the bronze buffalo stands. The 20-foot concrete platform is accessible via stairs located on the north side of the plaza and a handicapped-accessible ramp on the northwest side.

The handicapped-accessible ramp is inlaid with four diamond-shaped designs, each composed of a light granite centerstone, four cornerstone bricks and 112 single bricks. As part of a fund-raising effort being conducted by UB's Office of Development, the bricks will be engraved with names or messages of donors. To obtain information about how to purchase a brick, call (716) 829-2630, ext. 226.

The bronze buffalo was funded with $25,000 gifts from Gerald Goldhaber, Ph.D., UB associate professor of communications, and the late Burt P. Flickinger Jr., prominent Western New York community leader and businessman. It is a reproduction of the original statue that for years was the focal point of the old Central Railroad Terminal in Buffalo.

The statue was produced by Messmore & Damon, Inc., a New York City company whose founder, G. H. Messmore, sculpted the original Central Terminal buffalo for the New York Central Railroad in the 1930s.

The plaque will be unveiled by Goldhaber and Col. Francis B. Messmore, son of the original buffalo's sculptor and president of Messmore & Damon.

Among those presenting remarks at the opening will be UB President William R. Greiner; Ronald H. Stein, UB vice president for advancement and development, who launched the search for a bronze buffalo to serve as UB's campus mascot; and Philip B. Wels, M.D., honorary chair of the UB Sesquicentennial Planning Committee and chair emeritus of the UB Council.