Green River High School’s wolf mascot usually stands for serious business, whether on the athletic fields or in academic achievement.
Not so much this month as the senior class gets a little restless and silly.
One of the school’s main mascots, an actual taxidermy wolf in a glass display case in the commons isn’t looking as fierce now that someone’s pasted googly eyes on it.
It’s dang near impossible to look at it without laughing.
And Jacob Gantz, one of GRHS’s assistant principals, had a hard time not cracking up during a telephone interview with Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday about the googly eyes that have shown up all over the school.
“I think the googly eye on the wolf has been there for a couple of weeks, but nobody really noticed it until a couple of days ago,” he said.
Since then, the googly-eyed GRHS wolf has been the talk of the school and huge hit in local social media groups.
Sticking googly eyes on things was the senior prank this year. Besides the wolf, they’ve been turning up everywhere — on posters, a snowman sticker and even an iconic Wyoming “Steamboat” bucking bronco logo. Basically, anything with eyes.
Googly Eyes Everywhere
The goofy plastic eyes, which have adhesive backs allowing them to stick to just about any surface, have been turning up everywhere at GRHS for the past couple of weeks.
It’s not certain when the googly eyes were applied. But it must have been at least as far back as May 6, which was the seniors’ last day, Gantz said.
He said he’s still not sure if they’ve all been found.
“I’m going to have to walk the halls and check for more,” he said.
A Prankster, Not A Pervert
In what at first seemed like a disturbing turn of events, Gantz recently got a report that somebody had applied a miniature camera to a urinal in one of the boy’s bathrooms.
He went to investigate, worried that someone was engaging in strange, perverted activity at the school.
He was relieved to discover it was just another part of the prank.
“It turned out to be a googly-eye stuck to the urinal,” he said.
Many posters around Green River High School were hit with googly eyes, like this one featuring poet Maya Angelo. (Courtesy Photo) 
The iconic Steamboat mascot for Wyoming can finally see where he's going. (Courtesy Photo) 
Many posters around Green River High School were hit with googly eyes, like this one featuring Billie Jean King. (Courtesy Photo) 
Sticking a plastic googly eye on a taxidermy wolf on display at Green River High School was the crowning achievement of the 2024 senior class prank. (Courtesy Photo) 
(Courtesy Photo) 
The iconic Steamboat mascot for Wyoming can finally see where he's going. (Courtesy Photo)
Not Sure How It Got On The Wolf
The googly-eyed wolf is the prank’s crowning achievement, though nobody is sure when or how the pranksters pulled it off. It’s on the wolf, which is locked in a glass display case.
When initially contacted by Cowboy State Daily, Gantz said he wasn’t sure if the fake eyeball was actually on the wolf or had simply been stuck on the outside glass “in the right spot to make it look like it was over the wolf’s eye.”
He put the call on hold and went to double-check.
“Yep, it’s actually inside the case, on the wolf,” he reported, laughing.
“They had to have help from somebody to pull that off,” he said. “They would have needed a key to get inside the display case.”
He added that to his knowledge, the taxidermy wolf has been there since the high school was built in the 1990s.
‘Harmless’
Though the seniors are gone from the school and starting the next chapter of their lives, the staff and remaining students largely appreciate their light-hearted parting shot, Gantz said.
“As far as senior pranks go, this one was pretty harmless,” he said.
He noted that during his tenure, about the wildest senior prank he’s witnessed happened two years ago when raw hotdogs on strings were hung up around the school.
“Our kids here in Green River are pretty calm,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
