HERE COMES 'WYATT EARP'

HERE COMES "WYATT EARP!" The legend of a Howard University campus security guard assails me today. "Wyatt Earp" was what we called him . I never did know his real name; never wanted to get that close, too close to that "bad" man! It is averred, even by certain "old heads" who claim to be alleged eyewitnesses, that "Wyatt Earp," while making his rounds upon the "Yard," happened upon a gang of armed, nefarious, neighborhood robbers of our precious student lounge, the long-gone, "Punch-Out," just as they were trying to escape with their purloined loot. Now , I was not there, mind you, either at Howard, or upon the "Yard," e.g., the main campus, at the time of this much ballyhooed occurrence. This word-of-mouth tale predates my 1969, Freshman year, arrival at beloved alma mater. Disclaimer aside, sources say that when Wyatt Earp espied these fleeing miscreants he yelled out, "halt!" Whereupon one or more of them whirled and fired at Wyatt Earp, while running away. Earp then rolled onto the ground and fired dropping two or three of them in their tracks in front of the Fine Arts Building. The loot was recovered. I don't know if anyone died. No faculty, staff, students were injured, nor anyone else, but the crooks. After that extraordinary event in university history, students began calling that long, lean, angular-faced security guard "Wyatt Earp," based on his expert aim and bravery! Thereafter, as the word spread abroad, as it did to me in my Cook Hall dormitory Freshman year, I made a mental note to remember that man's name and face. He got much respect from the brothers. "Here comes Wyatt Earp," would clear out a cadre as quickly as a broom scatters dust!