Drago Banovic

A legend. If you call his name three times at midnight in the Atrium, he will appear.

A Night of Infamy

This event started like all others, not in my wildest dreams did I expect the events that would transpire on this terrible night would ever happen to me; and hopefully; will never happen to anyone else.

The engineers at that time usually all tried to attend the last Hart House Pub of the summer; it usually was a good time. I made plans to go, but I thought nothing would be better than to have a Cannon Event to lead into the new SkuleTM year - which was only two weeks away.

I gathered up a crew, we met up in the Atrium, caught up on what we did during the summer and had a drink or two. It was nearing 10:30pm, so we left the Atrium, went to go get suited up and left for Hart House. The walk over was uneventful, no surprises - as usual. The Cannon Guard proceeded to walk through Soldiers Tower, and entered the hallway into Hart House Quad. There was no Bnad escort, so the plan was to set the Cannon down, fire and leave.

So, we walked in, I placed the Cannon down and waited for the Rover to pass me the cigarette to fire the Cannon. I suspect (since I was focused on the Cannon) that the doorman at this point ran off and got the Pub Manager.

The cigarette was passed to me and I started the final sequence to fire the Cannon.

Then, what happened next was surreal, because I cannot believe what happened - someone grabbed my wrist! Now, for those who do not know, the three rules the Cannon Guard are told are: nobody touches the Cannon, nobody touches the CA, and nobody gets in our way. This was quite the unusual moment for me, since it never had happened before.

He grabbed the cigarette and said you cannot fire here. I said fine, we would leave. He became aggressive and started talking tough. So, I am currently on my knees (he is still holding my wrist - or trying, since I kept doing Ju-Jitsu release moves on his attempted grip, and he kept re-grabbing my wrist in an attempt to gain control. I then stood up and faced him, Visor to ugly short guy. He said the Cannon Guard could leave and that I'm not going anywhere - and he will let go of me (at this point he gave up trying to hold my wrist). I told him only I was to touch/pick-up the Cannon, and again offered to leave. He made some snide remark that I can not remember, but I remember what I said to him - "Don't start what you can't stop."

As the situation was framed, we still had more Cannon Guards than bouncers, so I was now in no rush to leave yet, and when we would leave, it would be on my terms. So he starts backing off on his tone and seems to be easing off his position - I thought - soon we would just leave. But; clever on his part, he was stalling until all the bouncers could make there was over to the hallway. Once he noticed he had more guys then we had Cannon Guards, his attitude went much worse. Then, he made what seemed to me a forward movement towards the Cannon so I pushed him back and then all hell broke loose. Some of the bouncers obviously had a chip on their shoulders and wanted to show how tough they are when they outnumber a group of students. Foolish, foolish boys.

As all this was occurring, the people at the Pub started to notice and make their way over to the entrance, but as I said, it was unofficially engineer night and many a SkuleTM mate was present. And I can not stress this enough, I thank all of them to this day for what they did - instead of standing there, they pushed their way up to the front, saw the bouncers starting to become aggressive and jumped in without a pause to think.

What I did next is what I regret the most - I left. You all must understand I swore an Oath to protect the Mighty SkuleTM Cannon, at all costs, so I left my friends and SkuleTMMates to fend for themselves. I believe I did the right thing, but it still sucks leaving a fight you know you can make a difference in. So while the Cannon Guard was making their way back, I swore too myself to do something to ensure such a situation would not happen again.

You ask what happened back at the fight? Through the stories of those there, I can tell you we showed them a thing or two. One particular story was quite amusing that I want to share with you.

Joel was tearing through the bouncers like it was going out of style, and then when he was dealing with one big guy, another jumps on his back and puts a choke hold on him. He continues to take care of the big guy, then reaches back and grabs the other guy by the back of his head and puts his fore and middle finger into the guy's eyes (a là Three Stooges). The bouncer (realizing he was screwed) asks Joel - "If I let go, will you let go?" Joel, without waiting a beat answers, "If you let go of me I will kill you!" The bouncer freaked out and as a show of faith (more probable - fear of going blind) loosens his hold, Joel loosens his - then the bouncer fully lets go and runs away.

I must say, I do not condone fighting, especially when Cannon Guarding because a Cannon Event should be a celebration of tradition, not bruises. But in saying this, it is up to all engineers (dressed up as Cannon Guards or those who are attending an event when the Cannon is present) that it is your duty to help if you see evil forces trying to capture the University of Toronto Engineering pride - Ye Mighty Olde SkuleTM Cannon.

Following this 'Event', I, with a few fellow Cannon Guards, laid out a framework for Cannon Guard training so that all SkuleTMMates would be ready for such future incidents with such undesirable ilk.

So, if you ever get a chance to attend these training sessions - I strongly recommend it, and besides, you never know who the guest lecturers will be...

Written by Drago Banovic, Chief Attiliator 9T7-9T8