Lockheed Employee Recreational Club / Mavericks Burbank, CA
Back in 2020 Dave shared an eBay ad for an 8” sticker for the Mavericks Jeep Club, earlier this year Dave and now Christopher have shared some additional information on the club and some of its past.
Here is the Ask:
If you were involved with the Club or have some history to share please let us know. There are some folks who are interested in catching up on the History.
Comment or can email me post@ewillys.com
Previously on eWillys:
Comments from LERC / Mavericks Jeep Club Sticker Post:
Rob Tyler March 21, 2025 at 9:37 pm
I was a member back in the late 1960s – mid 1970s. My Dad, Bob Tyler was past President of Mavericks , great memories and I’m still continuing the tradition. Guess I’m one of those damn fools ! Love to get my hands on that sticker , Rob Tyler, Glendale, California
Reply to Above>
Christopher Ogle October 21, 2025 at 12:37 am
Hello Rob,
My name is Chris Ogle. My dad was Ted Ogle he was the original artist for the Mavericks jeep club emblem. I too grew up in the jeep club and went on many weekend trips. We used to go to panamint Valley for Thanksgiving weekend to the dunes there just outside of death Valley. I remember the Skinners, they were nice people. Do you know Joe and Roberta Kent? They had a son, little Joe, and he had quite the jeep. His mom and dad had a black jeepster. well I hope this gets your attention and I hear back from you. Thanks, Chris.
Additional Comment from Christopher:
Christopher Ogle October 21, 2025 at 12:28 am
When I was a kid growing up in Burbank, California my dad worked for Lockheed California. This is where the Mavericks jeep club became a club.
Originally the club was the Lockheed Employee Recreational Club. It started with this name due to the fact that the meetings were held in a Lockheed building in Burbank.
My dad was the artist who drew the Mavericks jeep club emblem with the bull driving the jeep. The idea came from the club in general because we all had Bull horns for horns in the jeeps. If your old enough you know what the bull horn sounds like.
My dad, Ted Ogle has since passed away but my memories of my family going on jeep runs is the most memorable time with my family and the people in the culb.
Some names of the original members were: Joe and Dotty Mocracek, Oscar Wright, Chick Mocracek, Chuck Clarke, and many others. I still have pictures and videos (8 mm ) of jeep club trips.
I hope someone out there recognizes these names or are descendants from people in this club. I would love to hear from you.
Random Stuff I ran across:
Lockheed had a large presence in Burbank going back to the late 1920’s and continued through the late 1980’s. They did all sort of amazing projects out of Burbank, not going to be able to do it justice here so will defer a bit on that history.
Part of the overall set up was the Lockheed Employee Recreational Club, this had all sorts of activities for the Employees and their families. One group formed a Jeep Club that later was named Mavericks. (there could be some back story here that I don’t have access too, happy to fix this and how the name came about.)
Mavericks
“Mavericks” by definition whether or not it was actually based on it I feel turned out to be a very fitting name for the LERC Folks who could have been members. Doing some research into what Lockheed in general worked on some really special projects that were very unconventional. This was long before the day of the modern day Maverick from the TOP GUN movies, and in the latest version they just happen to tie in a Lockheed Martin supersonic aircraft flying at MACH 10 (we are getting way off track here); But it is very neat to see this tie in this many years later. The TOP GUN program was started in 1969 out of Nevada, it used Douglas A-4 Skyhawks and Northrop T-38 Talons. At the time Lockheed was working and producing the SR-71 and a bunch of other really neat aircraft, so not much relationship to that tie in.
AI Lift Here for some background on “Maverick”:
To call someone a maverick is to describe them as an independent and unconventional individual who doesn’t follow the rules or customs of a group. They are often seen as a lone wolf or a rebel who thinks and acts on their own terms, and this label is frequently used with a positive connotation to describe someone who challenges the status quo.
-
Independence:
Mavericks are known for their independent thought and action.
-
Unconventional behavior:
They are not afraid to be different and will “shun custom” or refuse to follow the rules of a group.
-
Nonconformist:
The term can be used synonymously with nonconformist, dissenter, or individualist.
-
Positive connotation:
Often, it’s a compliment used for someone who is creative, a trailblazer, or an innovator who isn’t afraid to take risks to achieve results.
-
Original meaning:
The word originated from the Texan phrase for an unbranded, stray calf, reflecting its core meaning of being an outsider or someone who doesn’t belong to the herd.
Christopher points out the Bull in the Sticker is based on having Bull Horns in their rigs, I think the tie in is a little deeper to the actual term Maverick and how it was defined back in the day, the Term in general was coined in the 1840’s and referred to independent unbranded Cattle that roamed parts of Texas. Across the front of the rig if you zoom in you will see the term TORITO, which is Spanish for “Little Bull”, so I feel they took the term and the Bull, then the whole Maverick Theme above. But I’m just posting my opinion (WAG) here of what I was able to piece together.
AI For the Lift here as well, but I did piece this together to form my opinion, just using it to back up my thinking here.
The word “maverick” originates from a 19th-century Texas rancher named Samuel Maverick who refused to brand his cattle. As a result, other ranchers began calling the unbranded cattle “mavericks,” and the term evolved to describe any independent, nonconformist individual who goes against the norm.
-
-
Rancher Samuel Maverick:
In the 1840s, Samuel Maverick received 400 cattle as payment for a debt but had no use for them, so he left them unbranded to roam the range.
-
Unbranded cattle:
Neighbors recognized the unbranded calves and branded them as their own, and began referring to them as “maverick’s” or “mavericks”.
-
Evolution of the term:
Over time, the term “maverick” was extended from unbranded cattle to refer to people who were independent and unwilling to follow the crowd or group norms.
-
Modern meaning:
Today, a “maverick” is someone who displays independence, boldness, and originality, and is seen as a complimentary term for those who challenge conventions.
Photo of the LERC Building in the 1980’s (it turned into a Kids Castle with a Giant Dragon for many years in the 2000’s, now its been torn down and replaced by a mid-rise building. You can still make out the building to the right on current day Google Maps, some of the roof line was reworked but the basic structure is still in place.)
Not tons of posts, no one to blame but these rabbit holes!!! There is no fix for that, life has been super busy lately with the Family and moving work to a new building. Bandwidth is at a premium, forgot my laptop at work over the weekend, but I do try to make sure that we put some work into these posts and tie in some sort of back story, I could have easily listed this as a single sentence “any info please share”. So fully aware of that we may not have 100 ads for sale this week, or any week, I fully appreciate the support and everyone following along. I learned a lot about Lockheed and its history at Burbank, the Top Gun program and the F4 (which ties back into the other Willys post from last week on the Navy Jeeps shared via email) So there is a lot of history out there to share. This took almost 2hr to piece together!
[fb_button]
