Twenty Years and Counting of Ice Cream Treats

No lack of sun stops MU and Columbia from a celebration

With chilly temperatures and an overcast October sky, it wasn't a perfect day for an ice cream social. But that didn't stop at least 1,400 students, faculty and staff, and ice cream fans from the community from standing in line for $1 ice cream and Tiger Tail brats.

They came to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Buck's Ice Cream Place. Buck's opened in 1989 with a gift from Wendell "Buck" Arbuckle, an MU graduate who went on to become an ice cream researcher at the University of Maryland, a consultant for Baskin Robbins and, later, the owner of the Arbuckle's ice cream shop in Columbia.

That opening was actually a re-opening, said Robert Marshall, the Arbuckle professor emeritus at MU. From the 1920s until 1972, the space now occupied by Buck's used to be Eckles Hall Ice Cream. The facility served as a student-training laboratory and an income stream for the MU dairy program. In those days, the dairy program also sold butter, milk and cheese. The department supplied MU cafeterias with dairy products in MU-branded cartons.

Eckles was closed in 1972 because of financial reasons. Then, in 1989, a donation from Ruth and Wendell Arbuckle brought ice cream and ice cream research back to MU. The store was named in honor of Arbuckle, who went by the nickname of "Buck."

Today, Buck's is noted for its signature flavor, Tiger Stripe Ice Cream. In the past, the shop experimented with such flavors as grass, sweet potato and maple bacon. Up until Tiger Stripe's invention in 1991, a chocolate-vanilla combination called the Tiger Special was the big scoop on campus.

Ice cream was not the only attraction at the event. The MU College of Veterinary Medicine Mule Team provided wagon rides and Truman the Tiger entertained. Joining Marshall in discussing the history of MU dairy and ice cream was J. Arbuckle, grandson of Wendell, who died in 1987.

J. Arbuckle said one of his grandfather's proudest moments was seeing the freshmen eating Tiger Stripe ice cream after Tiger Walk, their introduction into MU through the columns on the David R. Francis Quadrangle.