One Thankful (and hungry) Bulldog

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a great day filled with good food and great company. And what a great day it is as us Butler Bulldog fans have a lot to be thankful for after an impressive win over the Northwestern Wildcats last evening. It was an old fashioned dog and cat fight, pun intended, and it lived up to its billing with the Dawgs prevailing. There were dunks, blocks, three-point bombs, captivating plays and even a proposal for marriage. Yes, you read that correctly. During one of the timeout promotions, Ethan Ax proposed to Robin Wilson on the court. Much to the crowd’s enjoyment and approval, she said yes. Later the couple got their picture taken with me…consider it an early wedding gift.

Anyway, back to this Thanksgiving thing. Granted, I should probably be the most thankful dog alive, but I’ve got my gripes. The main one being that this holiday is pretty much positioned around the dinner table and that’s a place I’m not very welcome. Hey, I want turkey, dressing, corn pudding, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, noodles, deviled eggs, and rolls as much as the next dog! I had to settle for a little turkey and my standard kibble, which isn’t bad, but I was hoping for all the fixin’s.

Ah well, like I said, I’ve got a lot to be thankful for…I’m the mascot for a great university, I have adoring fans, my own blog, an abundance of toys and a great family. What else could a bulldog want? I’m sure I could think of some things, but that’s not the point. The point is, I’m a thankful bulldog and I hope that you are too. Moving on…

When I checked in late last week, I was getting ready to go to the women’s basketball regular season home opener on Friday night where my dad was part of the halftime entertainment, and by “halftime entertainment,” I mean that he played a little exhibition basketball game between the Butler faculty and staff and whatever students that did not head home for Thanksgiving break.

The game lasted eight minutes, on a running clock and both team rosters featured males and females. The faculty and staff dispatched the students 15-7 in a rather humorous affair. Much to my surprise, my dad led all scorers with 9 points, going 3 for 4 from behind the arc. Who knew my dad could ball?! But let’s not give him too much credit, after all, he did heed my advice and gave me a good luck pat before the game. I’m sure that had everything to do with it. Here's a picture of him getting ready to receive an inbounds pass and make his third straight three pointer from the corner.

Unfortunately, the Butler women did not fair as well against the Dayton Flyers that night. Maybe they could have got my dad an extra jersey and a wig and he could have checked in. Probably would have never worked, but it would have been fun to try. (Special thanks to my mom for taking me out on the court for starting lineups of that game.)

At the IU-South Bend/Butler men’s basketball game last Saturday, I finally had a chance to get up close and personal with the new costumed version of the bulldog mascot. I actually dropped my bone before him in a peace offering. True story. If you know anything about me and that bone, then you know I don’t give it up easily, so the fact that I simply dropped it at the costume bulldog’s feet should tell you something.

After two games in two days, I used Sunday as a day of rest while my parents raked leaves and played in the yard. That is until the evening when we gathered with friends for the Colts game. That affair and all of the excitement that went with it got me all wound up and kept me awake until mid-night. So, needless to say, after a weekend like that, I spent the majority of my Monday with my eyelids closed. It wasn’t until Tuesday until I fully rejoined society, so to speak.
It’s probably a good thing that I spent something like 19-20 of 24 hours on Monday resting, because Tuesday was demanding of my attention, focus and talents. You didn’t know I had attention, focus and talents (besides the ability to hold down a blog), but I do.

On Tuesday morning I had a photo shoot with university photographer, Brent Smith where we knocked out about three different shots…a globe-trotting pose, a holiday pose and a birthday pose…all coming soon to Butler propaganda near you!

That was fun because the birthday shoot involved an actual cake, of which I eventually got to feast upon. Mmm, mmm, mmm, creamy peanut butter deliciousness! It was worth being positioned in all sorts of ways, told to “stay” and “look here” countless times and wear silly hats. As soon as I was granted permission to allow my huge, pink tongue to smother that cake, I forgot all of the pain and suffering I endured during that shoot. Pure bliss.

I don’t have the actual photos from the proof yet, so bootleg YouTube videos and regular snap photos will have to suffice for now. Once I get the real shots, I’ll be sure to put them up on the blog.

After that, it was time for more rest and relaxation until my friends Xander and Xena came to visit me. Xander and Xena are English Bulldog pups from the same litter and are now five months old. You may remember them from the Bulldog Beauty Contest. They are owned by Stefanie Carel and her sister.

I had a good time with them, but after about 10 minutes, they completely wore me out! Bascially, I just stood around and dared them to try and take the toy out of my mouth, which you wouldn’t think would be hard work, but I seem to make a chore out of it. After that, I was pretty much wiped out again. I can’t keep up with these young pups anymore! A video is included below, and for more, visit BlueTube at www.youtube.com/butlerblue2

Speaking of the young pups, my half-baby-brother, Winston, stopped by to see me yesterday. It was good to see him again and even though we are family, we don’t necessarily play nice. I’m sure many can relate to that. We both think we should be the alpha-male in the relationship. That usually ends up in lots of barking, growling and charging. No hard feelings though. Here’s a little video from the encounter…

And with that, have a great Black Friday. May you find plenty of great sales and deals and may your shopping list be completed. And don’t forget to add your pets to that Christmas list!

Blue II

As Seen on TV!

Three days, three media outlets. It's just what I do.

Okay, so I really didn't have to do too much...I leave the most of it to the guy on the other end of the leash, my dad. He's not bad either.

So as I posted previously, it was the Smiley Morning Show on Monday, followed by Good Morning Indiana on WRTV-6 on Tuesday and yesterday, during the Butler/Ball State game at Hinkle Fieldhouse, it was WTHR-13 and reporter Emily Longnecker.

To view last night's footage and read the story, click here: http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=9383922

Basically, Emily was reporting on how the situation that lead to our new bulldog mascot costumes has now manifested itself into a little "Name that Dawg!" contest to name said costumes so that they aren't confused with me in the future.


If you've got an idea for a good name for the costumed version of the bulldog, then log on to ButlerSports.com and place your vote today!

Today was my first reprieve this week from any media requests and that was fine with me as the men's basketball regular season home-opening victory left me quite tired. In other words, I slept all day!

It wasn't until the 4 o'clock hour until I was required to make myself available. I was asked by the Butler chapter of College Mentors for Kids! to meet up with some youngsters who were roaming Butler for the afternoon learning different things about school spirit. It was my job to show them first hand just what school spirit looks like in the form of a live mascot.

One young man asked me if I could do back flips. I thought it sort of a strange question, but to not leave him empty handed, I peformed my "rollover" (illustrated below) trick to much enjoyment by the little ones. Anyway, I had a great time and I think the kids did too.

Tomorrow I'll return to the Fieldhouse to watch the Butler women play their first regular season home game against Dayton at 7 p.m. However, it's more than just the lady Bulldogs that I'm interested in as my dad will be the evening's halftime entertainment as well. Yes, you read that correctly, he will be the halftime entertainment and by that, I mean, he will be joining fellow faculty and staff for their own basketball game against the students at halftime.

I'm not expecting much, but it should entertaining to watch, nonetheless. If he knows what's good for him and if he's been paying attention these last few years, he'll be sure to give me a pat on the head for good luck before he takes the court. Good luck pops!

After that, I'll head home to rest up for Saturday's men's game at Hinkle against IU-South Bend at 2 p.m.

My week seems to be defined with media appearances and basketball games and those happen to both be some of my favorite things, so I guess you could say this has been a good week! Here's to a winter full of good weeks on the horizon!

Blue II

Media Hound

The first two mornings of this work week have been quite busy for me as I've been in high demand with the media. Okay, I may have exaggerated a little, but two media hits in two

On Monday the Smiley Morning Show, WZPL-FM 99.5 had my dad call in to do a follow-up on the news that was released over the weekend about the arrest of suspects in the case of the missing bulldog mascot costumes. Since we didn't have to go in studio and I don't talk, I really didn't have to do anything for this one, but sleep in my office crate while dad chatted with Smiley, Weedman and Paul Poteet. However, if it wasn't for me, my dad would have never got the interview, so I'm going to take credit it for that one anyway.

This morning we were invited down to WRTV-6 studios where we were stumping for Butler Basketball and the annual RTV-6 Toy Drive on their morning show, Good Morning Indiana. This time I was on camera, but given the early wake-up call, I wasn't too lively.

Unfortunately, my dad forgot to bring the camera inside, so I've nothing in the way of photography to post, so if you didn't see the broadcast, you'll have to take our word for it that we were on.

As I mentioned, we were promoting Butler's four-game homestand at Hinkle Fieldhouse which starts tomorrow night at 7 p.m. versus the Ball State Cardinals. Show up early to that game and receive a complimentary Pepsi schedule magnet and keep your eyes peeled for a look at the to-be-named new bulldog mascot costume!


On Saturday at 2 p.m. the Bulldogs will take on IU-South Bend where the SemCycle uni-cycle team will perform at halftime. Following that will be the Northwestern Wildcats on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at 7 p.m. and finally, next Saturday, Nov. 29, we'll host the Purple Aces of Evansville for the Toy Drive game. Bring a toy to Hinkle Fieldhouse for that game and receive $5 off of a ticket for admission to the game. In addition, my canine friends America's Best Frisbee Dogs will be performing at halftime for that game, so you'll definitely want to check that out!

For all of the info, just check out ButlerSports.com.


If you saw the RTV-6 broadcast this morning, then you saw my nervous energy get the best of me when I started chewing on my leash. That could have been avoided had they let me use the prop that I brought, but there just wasn't enough time in the show to make it work.


To promote the Toy Drive, my parents brought a wrapped Build-A-Bear (my favorite, no plastic eyes, no beads for stuffing, and just as cheap as Target or other stores) for me to open on-air. They thought it would be hilarious and a lasting reminder for viewers as I do not take opening gifts lightly.



Since I didn't get to open it on-air, before I left I stopped by the RTV-6 control room where the folks there got to watch me open it so it wasn't a completly lost cause. So I guess for getting up so early I got a new teddy bear...that's a fair consolation, I suppose.


For the remainder of the day I think I'll just stick to chewing on my new teddy bear and resting up. In addition to the game tomorrow and the subsequent men's games over the next several days, I'll also be at the women's home opener on Friday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. versus the Dayton Flyers, so it's a busy week for me to say the least.

I hope to see you at Hinkle Fieldhouse over the course of the next two weeks. I'll be there quite often and I hope you are too!

Go Dawgs!

Blue II

In Memory of a True Bulldog

This past Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2008 saw the unfortunate and sudden passing of a true friend and Butler Bulldog, Bob Dearing. A Butler graduate of the class of 1957, Bulldog Bob was as fine of a guy as they come.

He was one of my biggest fans and always made a point to read each one of my blog posts…probably read them twice to be honest! Bulldog Bob was always happy to see me and I was always happy to return the favor when I saw him.

Reading Bob’s obituary, it’s easy to see just how involved and successful he was. In addition to all of the things listed in the obituary, Bob also helped me out each year as a judge for the annual Bulldog Beauty Contest…Bob knew bulldogs!

But beyond all of the accolades and accomplishments was one of the most affable and vivacious characters you’ll ever know. Bulldog Bob’s great character will not soon be lost on any of us that knew him. It is a great loss for our beloved university, but Butler is a better institution for having Bulldog Bob in the family.

Being that Bob bled Butler Bulldog blue when it came to Butler Athletics, it wasn’t surprising that the men’s basketball team captured a victory on Saturday at Drake University in their regular season opener and it was announced today that the men’s cross country team earned a bid to the NCAA Division I Men’s Cross Country Championships.

I’m sure Bob had a little hand in those successes and I can just see him now, smiling at more Butler Bulldog triumphs.

I'm sad that you're now gone, but I've taken a bit of solace in knowing that you're now in an even better place, after all it's well known that all bulldogs go to heaven. I’ll miss you, Bulldog Bob, but I’ll never forget you!

Your friend and fellow bulldog,

Blue II

The Case of the Missing Bulldog Mascots: SOLVED!

Finally, the news we’ve all been waiting for dropped late Friday afternoon and the case of the missing bulldog costume mascots was solved. Thanks to the detective work of BUPD, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center and to a tip or two from an unnamed witness (of which I think I owe one of my precious bones) the case has finally come to a close.

The result: four dudes not only ruined two bulldog mascot costumes, but also ruined their reputations, some kid gets a whopping cash reward and one of my bones in rewards, I get a lot of mileage out of a YouTube video (featured below), Butler gets two new bulldog mascot costumes and a plethora of national and local media coverage, and the new mascot costumes will receive a new storage place under lock and key.

Not surprisingly, it was NOT Butler University students arrested/charged in the case. I’m not saying that I don’t think Butler students are capable of such a thing, I just think they have lives and wouldn’t bother with such immature antics. Now four guys (named here) are charged with a Class D Felony for possession of stolen property and a Class C Felony for burglary. If convicted, each could be fined up to $10,000 and face a maximum of five-and-a-half years in prison. Smooth move.

Maybe someone can explain to me the rationale of stealing unique bulldog mascot costumes. Not that I approve of stealing, it’s just that there seems to be more obvious things to heist, starting with, oh, I don’t know, maybe cold hard cash? Again, these weren’t Butler students so I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised.

Anyway, good luck with future job applications, boys. Just hope that the person doing the hiring isn’t a Butler grad!

Now granted, the old suits (one pictured below with me) were nine years old, a bit smelly, visibly tattered and in need of replacing, but we didn’t need any help with that. It sure would have been nice to have them on hand to preserve and display for history’s sake. After all, these were the same suits that were new when my dad was a sophomore and a young mascot himself. He can remember wearing them when they weren’t so smelly! Unfortunately, thanks to the work of these jackals all that’s left is a disfigured suit and a head that’s missing an eye and an ear.

Fortunately, the new costumes have been ordered from Street Characters (Calgary AB, Canada) and I believe one of them has already arrived on campus. I’ve yet to see one of them, but I hear that they are looking good. We’ll all get our first look at the men’s home basketball opener on Wednesday against Ball State.

In addition, since everyone thinks the name “Blue” is synonymous with “Butler mascot” we are having a naming contest on campus this winter to name the new costumed bulldogs. (Details coming soon.) Us live versions of the mascot are named “Blue,” but not the costumed version, so we’ll just clear that up via the naming contest. My vote: “Buster Bulldog.”

If anything kids, there’s a valuable lesson here and that is: if you really want to wear a mascot costume, go buy your own and have a great time, otherwise the cost is just too expensive.

Blue II

Stars of 'The Office'

Last night stand-up commedian, actor, and writer B.J. Novak came to campus and did a stand-up routine in Clowes Hall in front of students, faculty, staff and the community at large.

B.J. is perhaps best known for playing the character of Ryan Howard on the NBC sitcom The Office. He is also a writer and co-executive producer for the Emmy Award-winning show...the same show that my parents are fans of, so of course they went to the performance.

And while they did that, I hung out behind the control desk over at the HRC where I helped the student staff do laundry and check-in patrons. I rather enjoyed myself over there actually.

Then after the performance my dad came and grabbed me and we ventured back over to Clowes so that B.J. could get his picture with me. After all, I am the star of the Development/University Advancement Office at Butler.

So that was cool, and now B.J. can add to his résumé that he had his picture taken with me so he's got that going for him. No really, thanks for playing along, B.J.

That's the highlight of my week. Otherwise, it's just been mascotting and other random stuff. On Monday I didn't do too much, but my grandparents Kaltenmark came in to town so that was cool. Tuesday was my Mom's birthday so we celebrated that and the nation in which we live held an election. Today I got to visit with the Parent Council members and this evening I will be visiting with the "Lil Sibs" of our current students at a pizza party. Tomorrow is action packed with the Fall Scholarship Breakfast, a football game and another basketball exhibition game so that should be a good time.

Otherwise, that's about it for me. There's been a few other things happening this week, but I'm going to wait for those things to further develop before I let the cat out of the bag, so to speak. Mainly, I've really just been trying to catch back up on rest this week after all of my fun last week.

So with that said, I'm going back to sleep. Maybe I'll see you on campus tomorrow for football and/or basketball...Go Dawgs!

Blue II

A Hard Days Night, and I've Been Working Like a Dog

While Homecoming was a big weekend for me, that certainly hasn’t been the only thing filling up my work schedule (that’s code for “this is going to be a long post”). In fact, it all started a week before Homecoming when I was invited to pay a visit to Clinton Young Elementary School on the south side of Indianapolis.

You see, Clinton Young Elementary has these little learning communities where classes at various grade levels get together and learn about going to college and all of that good stuff. Well, it just so happened that one of their learning communities picked the bulldog to be their mascot, and it just so happens that I work for a university and I happen to be a bulldog. So, I’m pretty sure that’s why they invited me to be a part of their kickoff convocation.

We all gathered in the gymnasium where the kids got me barking when they sang “Who let the dogs out?” Then I did my routine of tricks, posed for pictures and let my dad do a little talking about me to the students. Good times.

Fast forward past Homecoming and into the week following Homecoming and I got things going right away with an appearance downtown at the Indianapolis Marriott on Monday. The Office of Admission invited me down there to take part in the annual IACAC Conference. The IACAC is basically a nerd-speak way of just referring to the Indiana delegation of admission counselors and professionals. Sweet.

Anyway, they had a little competition with other state institutions to see who displayed the most spirit at their respective admission booths. So it was set up like a giant college fair, only there were no aspiring college students, just a bunch of has-beens with name badges and school gear. I have no idea how Butler faired, but I think we should have won. Sure, other schools had guy-in-suit mascots on hand like the rat, er greyhound from UINDY (sorry Mom) and the grizzly from Franklin, but nobody had the live mascot thing going.

On Tuesday it was a visit to my favorite professor’s class. That’s right, Dr. Vibbert invited me to call on one of his PR classes. He lists me on the class agenda as the “guest speaker.” That just means I get to go run around the classroom for a few minutes, enjoy some loving from the students and of course, perform my tricks.

You may remember that Dr. Vibbert was the one included me in his commencement speech this last May. That alone earns you honors as being one of Blue II’s favorite professors.

Wednesday it was time for the annual men’s and women’s basketball tip-off luncheon in Hinkle Fieldhouse. A capacity lunch time crowd filled the main floor in Hinkle to hear Coach Couture and Coach Stevens speak about their impending seasons. I had the honor of welcoming those folks to the event and then my dad stashed me in one of the admin offices while he enjoyed lunch…hardly fair, but I that whole reasoning and speech thing puts me behind in these arguments all the time, so I just have to deal with the consequences.

Although, he awoke me afterwards to another adventure that involved heading back downtown for an appearance at the new Lucas Oil Stadium, so I forgave him for leaving me out of lunch pretty quickly. Funny, I remember not being allowed in that place for a grand opening ceremony because of some policy about dogs. Just a month or two later and I guess the sheen and prestige has worn off enough for dogs to enter. Whatever, I wasn’t going to complain.

It was the gracious NCAA who happened to make arrangements for me to be there as they were unveiling the new logo for the 2010 men’s basketball final four which will be hosted at Lucas Oil. Butler is the host NCAA institution for that event, thus my/our involvement.

I had a good time greeting guests and media there and posing for pictures with the Butler cheerleaders and dignitaries. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get down on the field to “mark my territory,” but I still had fun.

At this point, we were only half way through the week and I was exhausted. I think my dad could tell as I was asleep in the car before we even left downtown proper. So he drove me straight home where I basically slept, or was in some state of sleepiness from 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday until about 7 p.m. on Thursday. And after some dinner, back yard business and some play time, I was back to sleep for the night on Thursday as well.

And for good reason too as I had a big weekend ahead of me including the made out to be scary, but actually ridiculous holiday known as Halloween. But before my parents subjected me to the costumes, parading and pictures, I had real work to do, and early in the morning too!

After being carried from the bed to the car on Friday morning, I awoke in the parking lot of the Glendale Mall at 6:15 a.m. where the Smiley Morning Show was set up and doing a remote broadcast for their annual pumpkin drop. However, my role there had nothing to do with Halloween, pumpkin destruction, or anything like that. Instead, I was there to promo Smiley’s presence at the Butler Bowl on Saturday as a part of his college tailgate tour.

Again, I let me dad do the talking, but I really enjoyed running around the parking lot, checking out the big crane that was to drop the pumpkins, barking on-air, and stealing the show.

After that I headed to campus where Brad Ward from the Office of Admission picked me up and took me over to Atherton Union to visit with all of the prospective students and families in for the big open-house. Someone told me that there were 900 visitors on campus for the open-house, but I don’t really know for sure.

One thing I do know is, I got my picture taken with a lot of folks and Brad promised all of these people that their smiling mugs would appear on my blog, so here they are…


After work we headed over to Schwitzer Hall where the residents were hosting trick-or-treaters for the evening. My parents dressed me up in my lobster suit and took me over to greet the youngsters and families that came. I also ran into my pals Addison and Wrigley (Bulldog Beauty Contest winners) who were also dressed up as a bumble bee and a piglet (respectively). It’s all pictured below…

On Saturday it was back to campus for another round with Dave Smiley of WZPL-FM, 99.5, who had his camper trailer all set up and ready for the Butler stop on the Smiley Morning Show College Tailgate Tour.

Smiley always knows how to get me fired up and while hanging out with he and his producer “Weedman,” I located one of Smiley’s footballs in his camper and made myself at home. And by “made myself at home” I mean that I destroyed his football. Just check out the video…

My parents had to finally pull me off the football so that I wouldn’t waste all of my energy before kickoff of the game. I did my typical lead the team to battle routine, but this time my dad let me off of my leash to see how I would do. I guess I passed the test. I was really fired up for it…if you watch the video you’ll hear me barking before we do our 50 yard dash onto the field.

After that I left campus and headed to Holliday Park for a family photo shoot. Instead of posing by myself or with famous people, I finally got to have a photo session with my parents for once. I enjoyed being out at the park and I think with the fall colors, we’re going to have some nice looking photos to choose from for our Christmas Cards. A big thanks to Butler’s own Christi Isgan of Christina Isgan Photography & Design for taking our photos!

Following the family photos I went home and napped to prepare for the first men’s basketball contest of the 2008-09 season: an exhibition matchup with Marian College. I had been looking forward to getting back in Hinkle Fieldhouse for a basketball game since our final game there last season. I was so thrilled to be back. Of course, I did my pre-game routine with the starting five players and the Dawg Pound and even though we started three freshman, they are all quick learners as all five starters gave me a little good luck tap when announced. You can check out the video here…

At halftime of the game, I then headed next door to the HRC to visit some youngsters who were in the pool and enjoying a Riley Teen Retreat. They got me a little wet, but I didn't mind. I was hot by that point so it felt pretty good actually. I really wanted to join them in the water, but I'm not exactly a good swimmer so I had to refrain.

On Sunday, I tried to relax, but I did my fair share of running around too as I helped my parents rake leaves in the yard and later went to a Colts viewing party. And that was my week. Whew. It was even tiring just to watch my dad type all of that! Hopefully you haven’t been working as hard as I have. If so, take a break. If not, don’t change.

Blue II