There’s no dispute about the quality of the ice cream treats awaiting WSU this summer — and year ‘round! — at Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe on the Pullman campus. But there is some uncertainty about how the store got its name: from a president’s wife, from a dairy products student or from a storybook bull?
The oldest story seems to be that the wife of President Wilson Compton chose the name in 1948, when the university assumed operation of the creamery from the previous private contractor. Mrs. Compton was very involved in designing and decorating the dairy bar, according to Russ Salvadalena, creamery manager, and she was known to be persistent in her opinion.
“I had only known of the Mrs. Compton version until … we moved to the new plant,” said Marc Bates, Ferdinand’s manager from 1974 until 2000. He supervised the creamery’s move from Troy Hall to its current location attached to the Food Sciences and Human Nutrition Building in 1992. That year, former dairy student Rune Goranson told Bates the story that Salvadalena says now is told most often:
In 1938, the WSC Dairy Products Judging Team was trying to earn money to travel to competitions. Dairy student Goranson was on the team — and his middle name was Ferdinand. Coincidentally, the Walt Disney movie short “Ferdinand the Bull” — adapted from the 1936 children’s book by Munro Leaf — was released in 1938.
Apparently, the convergence was too much to overlook. The judging team sold ice cream sundaes to raise money and named their sales booth “Ferdinand’s.”
When the university took over creamery operations in 1948, the name was resurrected — quite possibly by Mrs. Compton — and applied to the Troy Hall ice cream bar. Sometime after, murals depicting the story of Ferdinand the bull were painted in the shop.
Like the murals, the name’s origin has become somewhat faded and obscured as time has gone by.
But what does it matter?
Even Shakespeare’s origins seem as sticky as a double-scoop waffle cone. And great ice cream, despite the origin of its name, still tastes as sweet.
