President Rudder's bulldog now rests at his feet

Every so often, Aggies will contact The Association of Former Students to ask, "What happened to Ranger's grave?"

The English bulldog who belonged to Texas A&M University president Maj. Gen. James Earl Rudder '32 was a "campus legend" when he passed away in 1965, according to Battalion coverage. Students including the yell leaders and The Battalion staff took up a collection to buy a gravestone for him.

That grave was on part of the land which became Aggie Park, and The Association of Former Students, which developed the park and donated it to Texas A&M in 2022, found a proper new resting place for Ranger: at his master's feet.

Ranger's grave was moved to the area just behind the statue of Rudder, which stands outside Rudder Tower and faces down Military Walk towards Sbisa Dining Hall.

The cadets of Company D-2 (known in the Corps of Cadets as "Dog Company"), who are charged with looking after Ranger's grave, handled his reburial and maintain the new gravesite. 

"The pet bulldog, who made the entire A&M campus his home, was named for the Ranger battalion Rudder commanded during World War II," the Batt reported. Rudder led his group of Army Rangers up the 100-foot cliffs of Pointe du Hoc during the Normandy beach assaults on D-Day, capturing a German artillery position; the group became known as "Rudder's Rangers."

Ranger the bulldog was actually "Ranger II," being the second bulldog Rudder owned by that name (Ranger I died before Rudder returned to Texas A&M as president).

An "unofficial Aggie mascot," Ranger periodically put up with signs and slogans being painted on his side, such as "Beat hell out of TU."

Ranger passed away after a sudden illness, and Rudder told students, "He loved you Aggies," the Batt reported.

The statue of Rudder was first unveiled in 1994 near Bizzell Hall; it was moved to its current location when Military Walk was refurbished in 2009.

It depicts him in civilian clothes, befitting his service to Texas A&M. But as a way to honor Rudder's military legacy, a 30-ton slab of granite resembling the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc was chosen to stand behind the sculpture created by Lawrence Ludtke '51, according to the January-February 2004 issue of The Association's Texas Aggie magazine.