Manhole, the French Fry, and the Tree. The Tree ended up receiving so much positive attention that the band decided to make it a permanent fixture, and the Tree came to be embraced by the Stanford community at large. The original Tree costume was conceived and constructed by Christine Hutson. When she left Stanford, she passed along the costume and the role of the Tree to a conga drum player in the band, Robert David Siegel. In the spring of 1987, Paul Kelly wrote a column in the Stanford Daily, lamenting the lame stature of the school's mascot since it was, at that time, just kind of a big green dress. Responding to the dare, the drum major and others responded by having "Tree Tryouts" at the Shak at 2am on a Saturday morning. Kelly was the only one who showed up. They put a song on the tape while the keg flowed freely. Kelly made a fool of himself dancing. At 5am, approximately 25 band members were outside his dorm with "All I Ever.." They gave Kelly one week to prepare a costume before a men's home basketball game. Kelly spent the following summer designing and building the first true Stanford Tree complete with surf shorts and white tails (as a tribute to the drum major Jimmy Jet). At the 1987 Big Game, Kelly was attacked by several Cal students who had run onto the field during the halftime show. Barely escaping, Kelly led them to the drum section where all three Berkeley students were tackled. "The staffers, many still in their grounds-crew uniforms, sit in neat rows, attentive if slightly bemused. Then the trombones kick in, and the audience is blasted back in its chairs like jet pilots. Before the first song is over, a few heads are starting to bob and feet are moving to the rhythm, but all eyes are on The Band's bizarre mascot. The Tree, a nine-foot pillar of bark and foliage – with legs and a maniacal smile – looks like a character from some low rent Disneyland. He ricochets around the stage and into the audience with alarming abandon, rarely quite vertical but never entirely horizontal." – excerpt from "Band on the Run", Rolling Stone, Issue 509, Sept 24, 1987 Due to the heightened visibility of the Stanford Tree, physical altercations with Cal students became common place and part of the assignment.