Peruna is the official mascot and fight song of the Southern Methodist University Mustangs. The first mascot was a 28” high, 150-pound pony donated by T.E. Jones of Arlington Downs. The feisty miniature black stallion made his first appearance at a pep rally before the Texas A&M University game on November 4, 1932. He was promptly named ‘Peruna’ after a popular patent medicine (18 percent alcohol). Legend has it that the medicine was ‘full of kick’, as was SMU's first mascot. He was kept on campus under the care of an organization called “The Saddle Burrs”. A week before Peruna I's death, he traveled to New York for the Fordham game where a city cab was his mode of travel. On Halloween 1934, Peruna I escaped from his on-campus living quarters and was struck and killed by an automobile on Mockingbird Lane. The event devastated the SMU community and sent the university into mourning.