Part of the Original Boxer Finds Its Way Home

The latest chapter in a decades-old mystery of what happened to the original Pacific University "Boxer" has been written.

More than 45 years after he inconspicuously left Pacific with a piece of the famed bronze figurine, alumnus Don Metzger '66, OD '67 recently returned it to the Forest Grove Campus.

And even though it is just a small part of the original statue, the tail's return may be the start of original Boxer's complete homecoming and restoration.

The original Boxer was a bronze incense burner gifted to the university around 1896 by the family of Rev. J.E. Walker, a missionary who acquired the statue while living in China. The statue was originally known as "College Spirit" at Pacific, reflecting the honored place it had within student life on campus. 

Soon after, students — groups or individuals — began a long tradition of taking unauthorized possession of Boxer from one another, sometimes by force. The original statue disappeared in 1969. A replica, Boxer II, was recast in the 1980s, and it too went missing in 2008. Boxer III was cast 2018 as a commemorative piece of art.