'I' Take it Personally
Few people living have as much to do with the new Red Hill “I” as Jim Mahar, a faculty member in the Idaho State University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Science and Engineering.
He worked on the old “I” as a student in 1963, completed a technical review of the old “I” that concluded it needed to be taken down and is among the group of current and past ISU Idaho State University students and faculty who are a major part of the team that put the “I” back where it belongs.
“To me, having a high-quality, beautiful ‘I’ represents the quality of education and experiences you can get at ISU,” Mahar said. “It has been an honor to participate in this project because it was so important to me and other people. I think the restoration and the president’s concept of restoring the ‘I’ history is outstanding because we do have a history and it is a really good one.”
Mahar came to ISU from Rochester, New York, to play football for legendary ISU coach Italo “Babe” Caccia, who respected Mahar’s academic commitments and would excuse him for missing practices if he had an important lab to attend. Playing cornerback and linebacker, Mahar was on a team that won the Big Sky Conference championship in 1963. He was also at ISU when it transitioned from Idaho State College to its current incarnation as a university.
“I helped work on the ‘I’ for one or two days when I got here as a freshman,” Mahar said. “I remember seeing it every time I went to the football stadium (Davis Field, where soccer and track now reign) and I would look up to it and it would have a special meaning.”
As his life progressed, the “I” took on more meaning. While he was playing football under the shadow of Red Hill and the “I,” his future wife, Carol Bowser, was a dancer as part of the Bengalettes, who performed at football games. A mutual friend later introduced them in 1964 and they married in 1966. When James looks at the “I” now, he also thinks of his wife, a former assistant dean of development for the ISU College of Business for nine years.
“I think the emotional side of this, restoring the ’I,’ has a lot of different aspects,” Mahar said. “But the one that is most important to me is that I was young, I was coming to school, I was playing football and I met this beautiful, wonderful woman and to fall in love was something so special. We were both studying, didn’t have any money, didn’t have any furniture, didn’t have anything and we ended up getting married and staying together for 53 years. It all started here at ISU and we are still in love and still at ISU.”
Carol, too, cherishes the “I” and what it means in her life. She grew up near campus and remembers admiring the “I” as she played on Hutchinson Quadrangle.
“I loved to hike up to Red Hill and enjoy the view,” she said. “I would watch the football team practice and enjoyed seeing the ‘I’ from a different angle. The ‘I’ was a daily part of my scenery when I lived on Fourth Street.”
Both Jim and Carol said ISU with provided them with a quality education that set the foundation for satisfying lives. They each went on from ISU to earn master’s and doctoral degrees and have successful careers, while raising their daughters Kate, another ISU alumna, and Jennifer. They lived and worked in several states, including Colorado and Washington, D.C., and spent about 30 years based in the Chicago area.
They returned to ISU in 2000 where she became an assistant dean. Jim joined the College of Engineering and the Department of Geosciences in 2001 and continues his work on the faculty. He also owns and works for Geotechnical Consultants, Inc. in Champaign, Illinois.
“Coming to school here was one of the best decisions I ever made,” Mahar said. “I got a wonderful education that really set me up for graduate work. In my opinion – and I’ve been to a lot of places, done a lot of work and been doing (civil engineering) consulting work for 47 years – this is one of the best deals going. The engineering group here is outstanding. It is a great place.”
As much as both Carol and Jim cherished the old, cement “I” on Red Hill, Mahar had a part in taking it down. In 2013, the ISU Facilities Department completed a study that raised safety concerns about the old “I”. Jim reviewed that study and also concluded that because of erosion and instability it posed a safety risk. The “I” was taken down in 2014. Before official plans were proposed, in 2016 Mahar had a class of 10 students complete a year-long project to replace the “I” at approximately the 50-yard line, or mid-stripe of Davis Field.
Mahar spent many hours up on the hill with his colleagues monitoring the technically and physically challenging construction project.
“For five years I was hoping it would be replaced,” Mahar said. “It is a very important symbol for this great university. It is going to be beautiful and it is going to represent what Idaho State University really means to a lot of people.”
Andy Taylor