In the early 1960s, a group of Army cadets walked into the office of James J. Boujikian — art director of West Point's Audio Visual Aids Department — with a simple idea: a spirit symbol for Army football, one with swagger and panache. One of the Rabble Rousers sketched a mule's head. Boujikian worked it over, and Max was born.

What started as a single mule head — "one ear up, one ear down" — slowly grew into a full character, revealed piece by piece across each season's game posters. By the Army-Navy game, Max appeared in full for the first time. He never looked back.

Before every home game, more than 1,500 posters were printed and distributed across the Academy. They hung on cadet doors, in Pentagon offices, behind bars in Germany, and on walls in Vietnam. Generals requested copies. Posters were sent to the White House. Max had become an international symbol — created entirely by one civilian artist who, by his own admission, was not a cartoonist.

"I'm not a cartoonist," Boujikian once said. "And it's very difficult to go from fine art to cartoon ideas." He gave Max personality through his eyes — large, expressive, unmistakably human. Every poster idea came from Boujikian himself, inspired by the opposing team's mascot. The illustrations became legends.