Students have unpacked their coats and mittens to prepare for the upcoming winter, but the Spartan statue has no such outerwear to protect him from the Michigan elements - yet.
The 9-foot-7-inch tall terra-cotta clay statue soon will reside in heated comfort inside the addition to Spartan Stadium in 2005. But until then, the only protection he receives is from the Spartan Marching Band before the MSU and University of Michigan football game.
During the week before Nov. 1, band members will guard the statue from Wolverine students looking to adorn him in their maize-and-blue school colors.
And this year marks the second-to-last time the ceramic statue - which is believed to be the largest free-standing ceramic statue in the world - will be outside for the Michigan game before it's replaced with a bronze replica in 2005.
The Sparty watch tradition began more than 20 years ago with members of the varsity club protecting it, and the watch soon became a band project, band President Alicia Maida said.
"We'll go there starting Monday night, and people stay every night," the music therapy senior said. "It's nothing formal, just something we like to do."
The band shows its school spirit by singing the fight song and alma mater as a group every midnight during the watch.
Maida said the band's efforts aren't in vain, either. The last time she remembers U-M rivals accosting Sparty under the band's watch was about five years ago.
And with MSU having a successful season, she said she's expecting some vandalism this year.
"I really appreciate the rivalry, but the physical acts I don't like," she said. "It's rude ,because I don't know of anything we do to them or that we try to do.
"Personally, I don't have to clean it up, but I know it's quite a big thing."
MSU alumnus and ceramics specialist Curt LaCross said cleaning Sparty causes more damage than the actual paint Sparty is doused in. He said Sparty is made of vitrified clay, similar to the material of coffee cups, and is deteriorating from water entering surface cracks and freezing in the winter.
"What happens is these particles of clay are starting to fall apart and when U-M throws paint on him the grounds crew power washes (the statute) and stuff falls off," LaCross said.
In fact, power washing has taken its toll on eight of Sparty's toes, which have been replaced with an epoxy putty clay concoction made by LaCross. Only two of the original appendages designed and produced by Leonard D. Jungwirth in 1945 remain.
Campus Park and Planning Director Jeff Kacos said a bronze replica will take Sparty's outdoor spot near the Red Cedar Road, Kalamazoo Street and Chestnut Road intersection.
Fund-raising is in the works for the $500,000 project.
"We will create a new plaza with landscaping around it so you can take pictures without standing in the street," Kacos said of the upcoming bronze statue. "You could also sit and rest and contemplate the sculpture."
But this placement change won't alter the band's tradition.
Spartan Marching Band trumpet player Andrew Mecher said he'd like the band to continue to protect the school symbol - clay or bronze.
"It's a fun rivalry," the engineering sophomore said. "We need to keep it up and protect him. He's our statue; he's Sparty."
