Butler University Homecoming 2009: A Dog's Eye View

It’s finally here, it’s homecoming 2009! Much like Christmas day, a birthday, first day of summer vacation, or any other highly anticipated day or event, homecoming week is one of the highlights of my job as mascot. I just love how the campus always comes alive with energy amongst a beautiful fall backdrop. And just as there are great events, activities and offerings, there’s even better reunions, renewed relationships and just people connecting with each other, their alma mater and/or this great university. Homecoming certainly is a special time.

As you could imagine, as mascot, I’m quite busy come homecoming week, although, I’ve spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday doing a lot of resting up by emphasizing a routine of lounging around the office and sleeping in anticipation for the hustle and bustle that is Thursday, Friday and Saturday of homecoming. Butler President, Dr. Bobby Fong only thinks he’s busy this weekend…he should see my social calendar!

On Thursday I have just a couple of appearances including my annual photograph with the Butler University Board of Trustees…nothing like getting a little face time with the “Top Dawgs!” And while they may have the reins to this place, I think they know who really calls the shots…why else would they put me front and center in their picture?

Thursday is a fairly light day, all things considered, but in addition to the trustee photograph, I’ve got an interview about the annual Bulldog Beauty Contest and an appearance at the dedication ceremony and grand opening of the new College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences building on campus.

Before I get started on my homecoming responsibilities on Friday, I’ve got a little personal business to tend to with the annual “Blessing of the Animals” service put on by our neighbor, the Christian Theological Seminary. The ceremony is held in remembrance of St. Francis of Assisi’s love for all creatures and its officially celebrated on Oct. 4th, but CTS holds their service a couple of days early so that it’s during the week. That’s Friday, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m. in the CTS courtyard if you are interested in attending. I rather enjoy the event and frankly, I’ll take a good blessing anytime I can get it!

After that, it’s back to campus and back to work. There’s a women’s soccer match at 4:30 p.m. versus defending Horizon League champions Milwaukee in the Butler Bowl that’s also an opportunity to support a very special cause…Breast Cancer Awareness Day. Come out and support the Butler women's soccer team as it hosts its Breast Cancer Awareness Day.

All fans are encouraged to wear pink in support of breast cancer awareness and the first 150 students in attendance will be able to attend a halftime tailgate, with each student getting a free hot dog, chips and a drink.

Friday's women’s soccer festivities will begin with a ceremonial pregame coin flip featuring Butler women's basketball coach Beth Couture, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last spring. Couture, who has won 363 games in her career - including 105 at Butler - is set to have her cancer treatments completed in time to lead the Bulldog basketball team this season. The women's soccer team will also be wearing pink warm-ups. Also at halftime, the Bulldogs will honor Joy (Aschenbrener) Sweeney (1995-98), who was inducted into the Butler University Athletic Hall of Fame last spring.

I might just have to trade in my blue jersey for a pink shirt on Friday afternoon. I’m not one for pink, my name is “Blue” after all, but I am one for a good cause so I’ll see what I can do.

Back across campus at 5 p.m. I have an open house to attend in the Fairbanks Building for the School of Journalism and then it’s off campus I go to the home of our resident IndyCar driver and 2003 Butler grad, Ed Carpenter, as I’ve been contracted to do an appearance for his daughter’s birthday party. I don’t normally do that sort of thing, but it’s a special friend and a special request, so I make exceptions.

After the birthday party, I’m headed home to host my grandparents who are coming into town and staying at my place. I’ll also use that time at home to rest up and get ready for a big Saturday on campus. Meanwhile, I’ll send my dad back to Butler in my stead to attend the President’s Dinner…formal dinners aren’t really my thing…that whole begging for food at the side of the table is considered faux pas, I guess.

On Saturday I can be found all over campus, whether riding in a Corvette for the parade, running the undefeated football team on to the field for their match against San Diego, showing my face at the young alumni Barktoberfest event, cruising the Butler Bowl parking lot for some handouts/table scraps at the tailgates or attending the volleyball game in the evening at Hinkle Fieldhouse. It’s sure to be a busy, but fun day.

And while all of that is well and good, perhaps there’s one event that I’m most looking forward to…an event that makes Butler’s homecoming different than any other homecoming. That event of course would be the annual Bulldog Beauty Contest!


You saw my post last month about the contest and it appears that my predictions were true as once again this year we are set to have our best competition to date! We have 74 dogs pre-registered for the event as of 9 a.m. on Oct. 1st and that’s a new record. Last year we had a total of 75 dogs show up, including walk-ups, so we are certain to exceed that come this Saturday, Oct. 3rd at 10 a.m. !

Keep in mind this event is free and open to the public, so whether you have a bulldog to compete with or not, you definitely want to attend…and bring a camera! Who knew a bulldog beauty contest would be such the spectator sport?! We’ll have increased seating this year (five sets of bleachers) for your viewing pleasure as well.

Held on the main mall, just south of Norris Plaza, these 74+ dogs (mostly bulldogs) will parade on a stage and catwalk and compete for the honor of being named the top dog in one of the following categories.

-Cutest Bulldog
-Meanest-Looking Bulldog
-Best Dressed Bulldog
-Best Dog Trick*
-Most Butler Spirit*
-Best Wannabe Bulldog*
-Oldest Bulldog
-Youngest Bulldog

-Best in Show*

Categories ending with an asterisk are the only categories open for non-bulldogs.

Keep in mind the “Best in Show” this year walks away with the grand prize of one year’s supply of dog food provided by Eagle Pack Holistic Select Pet Food, WellPet, and City Dogs Grocery! That’s a more than $600 value! Other category winners will take home prizes from City Dogs Grocery and all participants will receive a pack of Holistic Select Treats from Eagle Pack, WellPet and City Dogs Grocery. (a full list of sponsors is listed on the image below)

Oh, and we’ve increased our panel of judges this year from five to seven to include a couple of celebrities and our good friends at Indianapolis’ ABC affiliate WRTV-6…morning weatherman and traffic reporter, Paul Poteet and Tom Davis.

Why Paul and Tom? Well, we thought they might be able to help us on the weather and traffic Saturday morning, but even more than that, we know these guys like to have a good time. Just visit http://www.paulpoteet.com/ and their “Off the Cuff” videos for proof.

I hope to see you on Saturday morning for our Bulldog Beauty Contest…trust me, you don’t want to miss this event! If you can’t make it, then hop online as I’m going to try and do a live twitter-cast of the event either at www.twitter.com/butlerblue2 and/or www.twitter.com/butleru.

So that’s what my Homecoming weekend looks like, but of course, that’s just a highlight of events during Butler’s homecoming weekend…at least the ones that I’m involved with anyway. So for a complete listing, visit www.butler.edu/homecoming and take a look at the complete schedule of activities this weekend.

And if you can’t make it back, I’ll be tweeting my homecoming adventures at www.twitter.com/ButlerBlue2, so feel free to log on often for status reports and pictures!

Here’s to a great homecoming weekend, filled with victories, reunions, good times and great weather!

Go Dawgs!

Blue II

A Laugh at My Expense

Once again I must begin by apologizing for the duration between blog entries. And once again you can blame my dad, who has been traveling on behalf of the university, been sick, and whom also has been citing a lack of material to blog about.

Frankly, I find all of that to be nothing more than a list of weak excuses, but what could I do? Well, I did about the only thing I could do and provide him with a little “material” to blog about. Of course, it wasn’t really my intention, as you’ll be able to see, but it worked, so it was worth.

So over the past two or three weeks I’ve been busy with work as usual, Butler sporting events, student events, Staff Assembly meetings, a sorority function as well as a fall photo shoot (pictures coming soon). Of course, all of this you can see and follow along with on Twitter, including photos at www.twitpic.com/photos/butlerblue2.

Otherwise, maybe you’ve seen me featured in a handful of pieces over the last week or so, including the new Homecoming poster, the Butler Basketball season ticket promo wrap for The Indianapolis Star (pictured) and the season ticket TV advertisement (below).

And if that weren’t enough, I’ve got it on good authority that a Butler Blue II 2010 Calendar will be on sale in the Butler Bookstore later this fall! I’ll keep you posted on that project, but it goes without saying that a calendar of yours truly makes a great stocking stuffer!

Now, that’s all well and good, but I’ve left you in suspense long enough. It’s time to bring on the laughs. Let me just preface this next video clip by saying that it is hilarious. Sure, it came at my expense, but if we can’t laugh at ourselves every now and again then life just isn’t worth living.

So here’s a clip that was shot by my mom with her iPhone and it is of my dad and I running the Butler Bulldogs football team onto the field for their third game of the season and rout of Hanover. This is the standard routine for us and we do it at all of the football games. In fact, it’s one of my favorite jobs as mascot, only this time things didn’t go quite as planned.

This time, just as I was making my move to take the team onto the gridiron, my Butler Bulldog mascot counterpart, Hink, also made his attack and well, the rest is history. Add in a dramatic feature like a collective gasp from the crowd and somehow capture it all on video and voila, you’ve got yourself a nice entry for America’s Funniest Home Videos!

Anyway, here, it’s time you just watched this thing for yourself and had a hearty laugh…

Needless to say, we’ll be working out that little scenario before Homecoming. So I hope this video provides a good lesson, and that lesson, besides properly timing up pregame activities, is to not take ourselves so seriously and to be willing to have a good laugh at our own expense.

I can’t be mad at anyone…in the heat of the moment I’m not one to notice much of my surroundings and Hink is not one known for his great vision so something like this was bound to happen. What can you do but dust yourself off and have a good laugh?

Pretty good way to start off the week, huh? Feel free to send that to a friend that needs a little lift. It should do the trick!

Blue II

Bulldog + Beauty = Only at Butler

I was hoping to have this Homecoming recap up sooner, but it’s been quite a busy week for me and I’m not even done yet! Oh well, better late than never, and besides, I don’t even get paid to do this blog so if I’m late here and there, then so be it.

Well, Butler University Homecoming 2008 came and went and while it was a little bit cold outside, things stayed dry and everything else went exceptionally well, so I’ve got no complaints.

We got things kicked off Saturday morning on the main campus mall, outside of Jordan Hall with the Blue II Family Fun Fest. Besides lending my name to this event, I didn’t really have much to do with it. Basically it consists of face painting by clowns, blow up bounce houses, and more clowns constructing balloon creations. I’m not really into much of that stuff, but the kids seem to like it.

My real activity began at 10 a.m. for the ninth annual Bulldog Beauty Contest, presented by the Ovid Butler Society. Of course, I cannot compete in the contest given my title and stature on campus and in the community, so I play the role of “host dog.” Basically that means I strut my stuff on the runway prior to the judging and welcome the crowd. Then I let me dad take over with the emcee duties and I just sit back and watch. And by watch, I mean play with the bulldog puppies and snap at some of the adult bulldogs. Hey, it’s a territorial thing…I just want to make sure they know whose campus they are on and that there’s only one official mascot around here.

Anyway, the contest was great. As I mentioned last week, we had more than 70 dogs pre-register, which was a new record and while we had some no-shows the day of the event, we also had some late additions so it evened out nicely.

We had a total of nine rounds of competition and below are the categories and the respective winners. My congratulations to all of the winning dogs…

Cutest Bulldog: Wrigley, Owned by Sam Ford

Meanest Looking Bulldog: Mojo, Owned by Doug Welks


Best Wannabe Bulldog: Hector, Owned by Eric Fairbrother


Most butler Spirit: Hugo, Owned by Kearsten Casey


Best Dressed Bulldog: Panda Bear, Owned by Wendy Crawford


Best Trick: Abby w/ “the rollover,” Owned by Nancy Hardin


Oldest: Katie at a young 11 years, Owned by April Paulman

Youngest: Addison at just over 3 months and Owned by Sam Ford

Best in Show: Hugo, Owned by Kearsten Casey (great Butler outfit, Hugo!)


Again, a big hearty congratulations to our winners! Bravo! (and a big thanks to Maribeth Fischer for the photographs!)

Winners were selected by a panel of five distinguished judges and friends of mine. They are…

Mr. Bob Dearing ’57, Ovid Butler Society Executive Committee
Dr. Kurt Phillips ’92, Woodland Animal Hospital
Dr. A.J. Stump, Ovid Butler Society Executive Committee
Kim Netherland, City Dogs Grocery
Ryan Waggoner ’10 , Student Government Association President

All contestants received a gift bag with Holistic Select treats courtesy of Eagle Pack Pet Foods, Inc. as well as a gift certificate for use at Woodland Animal Hospital. On top of that, our category winners received dog toys and prizes from City Dogs Grocery and Meribeth Fischer.

We owe all of our sponsors a big THANK YOU for all of the great treats, prizes and other items. Our sponsors are…

Woodland Animal Hospital (Dr. Kurt Phillips)
City Dogs Grocery (Susan Smith…located at 49th and College Ave.)
Eagle Pack Pet Foods, Inc. (Liz Morken)
Firehouse Images (Terry Corman)
Ovid Butler Society
Maribeth Fischer

If you missed out on this contest, then you need to be there next year. When the 2009 Homecoming date is announced, go ahead and mark your calendar.

Of course, just writing about the contest and dropping a couple of pictures can only do so much. Perhaps some additional images would help. Thanks to Mr. Rick Miller of New Palestine, Ind. we have a great album of photos for you to view: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20471995@N08/sets/72157608395935893/

After the contest, I was able to take a quick break before rejoining my dad and assuming our spot in an all original, silver 1975 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray. Talk about a sweet ride…just imagine what it did for the value after a celebrity like me rode in it. You’re welcome.



I enjoyed the parade as a lot of people would yell my name as I hung out of the car. I was on display for all to see and I didn’t have to walk! Perfect. That’s a mascot’s dream!
Here's a quick video of it as well...




The parade route dumped us off at Hinkle Fieldhouse where I hung out in the Wildman Room before heading down to the tunnel to lead the football team out on the field prior to their game against the Eagles of Morehead State.



After being down 21-3 at half time, our Butler Bulldogs rallied to win the game by a score of 31-21 and to go to 6-1 on the season and 4-0 in the Pioneer Football League. The four league victories match Butler's PFL win total for the previous five seasons! Go Dawgs Go!

Following all of that, I went home and slept. My day was done. My dad had to go work a class reunion that night in Broadripple, but this old dog was officially off duty at that point.

Needless to say, I slept quite well. After all, it was a great day…clowns, bulldog beauty, a parade, a football win, alumni, students, families, cold beverages, warm beverages, good food, etc., etc., etc. It was a successful day and I’d like to think I had a little something to do with that. If you did, then I thank you for doing your part as well.

So Homecoming is now in the past, but that doesn’t mean my schedule has let up any. I’ll save all of that scoop for another post so that my dad can round all of that material up for me and get it ready for posting. Until then, have a very Happy Halloween!

Blue II

Announcing the 9th Annual Bulldog Beauty Contest

It is is my pleasure to announce the 9th Annual Bulldog Beauty Contest, presented by the Ovid Butler Society, hosted by yours truly, and sponosred by City Dogs Grocery (Susan Smith), Eagle Pack Pet Food, Inc., Indiana Veterinarian Specialists (Dr. Deborah Stephan), and Woodland Animal Hospital (Dr. Kurt and Julia Phillips).

All bulldogs, wannabe bulldogs and their owners are welcome to attend the event which is held in conjunction with Butler University's Homecoming celebration on Saturday, Oct. 25. In fact, it's actually a part of the officially titled, "Blue II's Family FunFest." (I'll be a busy guy on homecoming, that's for sure!) The Bulldog Beauty Contest start time is set for 10 a.m.

Contestants can R.S.V.P. to my dad, Michael Kaltenmark`02 at mkaltenm@butler.edu, or to me at blue2@butler.edu, or call us up at 317-940-9672.

Dogs will be judged on various categories such as cutest, ugliest, best dressed, best trick, best wannabe and more.

Last year we had just over 60 dogs participate and we're looking to exceed that this year for another record-breaking event. All participants, whether a category winner or not, will receive a complimentary gift, courtesy of City Dogs Grocery and our sponsors.

It's sure to be a great time so if you're reading this and you have a bulldog or dog that you wish to have participate, then please let us know so we can get him/her/them registered. And if you do not have a dog, but still wish to attend, then please make plans to do so. We'd be happy to have you...bring your camera and be prepared to laugh!

Hope to see you there,

Blue II

In the Spolight

An anonymous reader asked, "Blue, I think you are adorable!! I'm sure with a job like yours you get invited to do all kinds of things... What have been some of your most exciting moments in the spotlight??"

Great question! The first few years on the job haven't been dull, I can assure you, but most of my time in the "spotlight" has been of the local variety. Although, I'm looking to make my big break this March in San Antionio, Texas for the Men's NCAA Final Four. Coach Stevens, members of the basketball team, if you're reading this, see what you can do to help me out. Okay?

Just thinking back off the top of my furry head, some of the obvious things that come to mind are my appearances at Butler sporting events. Whether it's leading the football team onto the field (pictured), greeting the starters on the basketball court, doing my "tricks" during a timeout at center court (pictured), or serving as the halftime entertainment at a soccer match where I displayed my own soccer tecniques, those are all great instances where I steal the show.

Of course, there's more than athletic events, there's also the performing arts. I've been a part of the limelight at several events such as YMCA Geneva Stunts, YMCA Spring Sing and JCFA's REJOICE! where the students sang "Blue Christmas" and I came out on stage riding a sleigh with Santa Claus. (picture below by Claire Corbin Photography)

I also make appearances at university/campus events for University Advancment, Admissions, Student Affairs, and much more. I've been used in class presentations, atttended press conferences, and black tie galas (pictured). At the press conference to announce the hiring of Butler Athletic Director, Barry Collier, I let out a loud bark during the middle of that event. I'm not sure what came over me, I just felt like letting the media and attendees know that I approved of the hire.

Oh yeah, and there's Butler's Homecoming activities too, where last year I hosted the "Family Fun Fest," and the annual "Bulldog Beauty Contest presented by the Ovid Butler Society," as well as had my own Corvette in the parade.

I've also been known to be a bit of a media hound too. From TV, to radio, to newspapers, to magazines, to the internet, I'm blowing up! It's not uncommon to see my mug on the local Indy major network affliates when they cover Butler basketball highlights after a game.

I can remember one time Dave Calabro of WTHR NBC Channel 13 (and Butler grad) was doing a live shot from Hinkle Fieldhouse before a home game. He wanted to get me on camera, so going to a break, he rolled a basketball (one of my favorite things) on the floor for me to attack. I didn't disappoint. It was so funny that he featured it on his "Check It Out" spot in the 11 p.m. broadcast. Guess you had to be there.

This past month I did get some national TV exposure as well as I made a couple of appearances on ESPN's SportsCenter.

This season and last you can hear me on the radio broadcasts of the men's home basketball games. Those can be heard at WXNT AM 1430. That's me barking for the Ovid Butler Society and Bulldog Club commercials.

I've also made two or three appearances in Indianapolis Montly, with my most recent coming in the Feb. 2008 issue, page 100. No issues of Dog Fancy yet or Time's Dog of the Year yet, though.

I've been in the newspaper quite a few times including this past Sunday's edition of the Indianapolis Star. I also make appearances in Butler's student produced paper, The Butler Collegian.

Okay, that's all I can think of right now, but now that I think about it, I need to renegotiate my contract! That's a lot of stuff I've done in just under four years. My stock is hot, baby! Get Ari Gold (pictured) on the line, I need some representation!

I'm sure there's more that I've done, times I've been the center of attention, instances where I stole the show, etc., I just can't think of them. If your reading this and something comes to mind that I didn't cover, then use the "comments" section to share.