Back to School
Following the death of
this father, Sam returned to the University of Oklahoma for the spring
semester 1935. While attending OU, he spent his vacations with
his cousin and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Huggins, in their Tulsa
home. Sam did not have a car, so he and a friend, Bill Hewitt,
often resorted to hitchhiking as their primary means of travel.
His cousin and her husband would drive the two out of town and wait out
of sight until they found a ride. Both found over time that
certain cars provided a better ride. They preferred those
equipped with radios. Sam's growing interest in cartooning eventually caused him to switch his major from pre-law to journalism. He became friends with John Runyan, a fellow student and editor of The Covered Wagon, a popular campus humor magazine. Sam was soon given the title of Art Editor, a big title for a job which paid nothing. He also worked for the Oklahoma Daily (the college daily newspaper) and waited tables at a local sorority house for his meals. He also had a part-time job provided by the national Youth Administration Project. It was run out of the Government Department, so Sam spent a few hours each week working for Dr. Carr. It paid about $10 a month.
Sam and John Runyan
decided to room together and found a large room with 3 beds, private
lavatory and low rent. They took it and recruited another
friend, James Peters, to join them. James was a fine arts
major with a good wardrobe which made him valuable as a roommate.
Neither Sam nor John had the money for expensive clothes. They
were close to the same size and the first man up got the pick of
clothes. The last one up often ended up with slippers, no socks,
a pep club Ruf-Nek red
sweatshirt and corduroy pants. Both Cobean and Runyan found Ruf-Nek shirts favorite wear.
Cleaning bills were expensive and they often advertised the club by
wearing the shirts for days at a time. Needless to say, their
"presence" was soon noticed by other students in their classes.Ruf/Neks Crest
About this time, Sam began dating Anne McCool, a beautiful 18-year old
university coed from Norman, Oklahoma. Anne, born in Tishomingo,
Oklahoma, was the daughter of an Oklahoma educator. Her father,
R. M. McCool had been president of Murray State School of Agriculture
until 1930 when he resigned and the family moved to Norman. Anne
attended the University his freshmen year, but he didn't meet her until
he returned to school in 1935. Anne's first date with Sam was
arranged by friends. Marjorie Haskell, a friend of Anne's was
dating one of Cobean's Kappa Sigma fraternity brothers, Ralph Kelly,
and the two arranged a blind date between Anne and Sam. Their
second date, Sam was supposed to meet her at the Student Union, but
wasn't on time. She didn't wait. Anne soon discovered that
while Sam was always on time to his jobs, he was often late for
dates. This wasn't entirely his fault. His friends liked
the status quo and did their best to prevent Sam from keeping his dates
with Anne, which wasn't difficult since he was easily distracted.
They liked Anne, so their tricks were all in fun and never
serious. Fran McCool, Anne's younger sister, was nine when they
started dating and vividly remembers a handsome Sam, in his Ruf-Nek
shirt, coming to visit the McCool house. From the first, the
handsome couple seemed destined for each other.Sam and his group of friends were active participants in several campus organizations. Cobean was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity, but rarely went to the house except for free meals and dances. Sam and Runyan formed their tongue in cheek answer to the campus Pe-et, an honorary organization for the ten best senior men. Theirs was called the Te-ep, for the "ten worst men." It was a beer-drinking society known for its antics. They designed their own key made by an Oklahoma City Jeweler and had their crest painted on the wall of the Varsity Shop, along with other campus groups.
After Te-ep, the group organized the Mustache Cup Club, another Varsity shop hangout gathering. Each member had his own mustache cup for beer and all were required to sing. Sam was awful, but he really loved to sing. Peters. a fine arts major in voice, was a very good bass and Runyan a tenor. Once they broadcast an hour of songs to promote The Covered Wagon, over University radion station, WNAD. One Christmas vacation, the three were in Norman and Runyan decided to take his friends to his family home in Oklahoma City. They didn't arrive quite as planned and Sam suggested they should make a big entrance. At 5 o'clock in the morning they started marching up the street as fifer, drummer, and flag bearer singing "Yankee Doodle" as loud as they could. Runyan's father and neighbors were not impressed, but his mother adored Sam's sense of humor.
Cobean's grades were consistently above average, an amazing feat considering his involvement in so many campus activities and the occasional "frolics". His best grades were in Art classes, Geography, American Literature, and Politics. H. H. Herbert, director of the School of Journalism while Sam was a student, remembered him as "not too avid a student, and interested primarily in extra-curricular activities." He also mentioned that "Cobean did exhibit a definite talent for drawing." In a "Law and Ethics of the Press" class under Professor Herbert, Sam would often draw cartoons of his professor in various interesting poses. One day, however, Herbert discovered Sam drawing his cartoons and had him draw cartoons on the front blackboard for the remainder of the period , so that the entire class could benefit from his talents.
Cobean did much of
the artwork for the Yearbook
and The Covered Wagon.
His first contribution to the Covered
Wagon was a cartoon published in October, 1935. The
following month he drew a cartoon that was featured on the cover.
The drawing featured a happy OU couple sitting on a covered wagon being
pulled by a pouting A & M College student (now Oklahoma State
University). During 1936-1937, Sam became editor of The Covered Wagon. Not
surprisingly, his cartoons were featured on all of the covers during
his tenure. He also used his artwork to illustrate feature
articles. A popular Cobean series of full-page cartoons featured
campus fraternities and their activities. The likeness to well
known campus personalities was clearly evident, as was the type of
humor for which he has become known. Sam loved to lampoon the
character traits of popular individuals. His early drawings were
exceedingly complex, often containing twenty or thirty characters and a
level of detail not found in his more mature work. Only later did
he learn to simplify his drawings, a characteristic of his later
cartoons that contributed so much to his his success. 
For the first time, Sam started to make a little money from his
drawing. He began selling some of his cartoons to a literary
magazine in Oklahoma City, The
Bandwagon. Subtitled Magazine
of the Southwest, the Bandwagon
offered commentary on popular literature, news and local
personalities. Though his now characteristic style had not yet
emerged, his art work was greatly enjoyed by the students at OU.
His characteristic sense of humor was present in his cartoons, but
without the exaggeration of physical features that became the
trademarks of his later style. His interest in portraying
personalities that were humorous sometimes got him into hot
water. Then again, it hard to find a balance between humor and
good taste in such campus magazines. If they please the faculty,
the students will not be interested in reading the issues.
However, giving students what they want can cause big problems.
Sam didn't find the middle ground very exciting and was often tempted
to push the envelope. In one of his issues, Sam asked
Charles Giffin to photograph a drama coed in the nude. He then
featured the photo along with drawings of his own as the main article
in The Covered Wagon.
Two hundred issues got into circulation before the administration found
out and recalled the remaining issues. Sam was called into the
office of President William Bizzell. He was not suspended.
No remaining copies of that issue of The
Covered Wagon are known to exist.Sam wrote some radio shows for the university radio station, WNAD with his friend Harlan Mendenhall who knew that Sam was particularly good at comedy and satire. Sam created entire scenes in his mind and condensed them before commiting the final scene to paper. It was that experience, at least in part, that later helped him take complex situations and reduce them to simple cartoons. Sam also took a turn at dramatic acting, playwriting and producing movies. One of their productions was a movie that never got shown. It was well known on campus that some students frequently visited the sand bars on the Canadian river, just south of Norman, for sometimes risque parties. The two of them took telephoto shots of a famed "river bottom" party. Both students had been asked to work on a committee to produce a short movie on campus activities. They managed to slip those scenes into the film. Those scenes were later discovered and edited out before the film's first showing. Once again, Cobean found himself in the dean's office the next morning. Again there were no serious consequences for his youthful indiscretions.
After the spring semester of 1937, Sam entered a drawing contest, primarily for college students, sponsored by Walt Disney Studios. Advertised in newspapers all over the country, the ads offered both art instruction and employment. Sam entered only after much hesitation and persuasion by friends and relatives. Disney promised the opportunity to learn a trade which paid as high as $20,000 to $30,000 per year to those with talent. As a result of his contest entry, Sam was offered employment with Walt Disney Studios in Hollywood. Although only 12 semester hours away from graduation Sam decided to drop out of college and move to California to seek fame and fortune as an artist.
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