KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Officially, there has never been a larger ridden parade of mules than the one that took place Oct. 23 during the University of Central Missouri’s Homecoming Parade in Warrensburg.
The school announced Wednesday that Guinness World Records had bestowed the title “after a thorough review of video, photographs and other supporting materials.”
The homecoming parade featured 50 mules with riders and was the first attempt to establish the record for Guinness purposes.
“We are beyond thrilled to be named as the record holder for the largest ridden parade of mules,” Jackie Jackson, who helped organize the event in her role as associate vice president for the UCM Alumni Foundation, said in a statement.
The world-record attempt was part of UCM’s sesquicentennial festivities.
The school was founded in 1871 and mules have been the mascot for men’s sports at UCM since 1922.
“When we first announced that we were going to try to do this in UCM’s 150th year, the number one question we were asked was ‘Why?’ and the answer is if anyone were to set a record for a parade of mules, it should be UCM at the Homecoming parade,” Jackson said. “This accomplishment is demonstrative of who we are as a university — a proud ‘Mule Strong’ institution that thrives with the community’s involvement and support.”
UCM’s two mule mascots, Manco (Tommy) and Molly, participated in the parade.
Tiffany Cochran, senior director of events and alumni engagement for UCM, helped rally mule owners from around the state to get involved in the event.
“There are a lot of people who have mule pride,” Cochran said. “When we started to make calls to get people to come out to the world record (attempt), the responses came flooding in. Everybody wanted to be involved.”
Former Gov. Mel Carnahan made the Missouri mule the state’s official animal in 1995.
