An item in today’s Flamingle caught my eye: Why is Bucky Badger’s birthday October 2nd?
Turns out that the big day dates back to the registration of Bucky’s likeness in the Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries on October 2, 1940.
Being a law librarian, I couldn’t help but dig a little further to find that entry. There are actually two entries: “Wisconsin and seal together with comic collegiate badger mascots” and “Wisconsin football player together with Wisconsin badger mascot in top hat”
Well, I couldn’t rest there. I wanted to see the original images. That led me to a fun article in On Wisconsin about the origins of UW logos. It included both images and a bit more info on how they came to be.
“Wisconsin and seal together with comic collegiate badger mascots”
From On Wisconsin:
In 1940, Brown’s Book Store on the corner of State and Lake commissioned a sheet of “comic collegiate badger mascots” from the Anson W. Thompson Company in Los Angeles. Artist Arthur Evans drew a pair of parading badgers, the belligerent one that would later emerge as Bucky and a friendlier counterpart carrying a Wisconsin pennant and wearing a freshman beanie (which made him look more like a sailor than a student).
“Wisconsin football player together with Wisconsin badger mascot in top hat”
From On Wisconsin:
Two other Madison bookstores sold decal sheets with similarly humanized (but markedly unsettling) mascots. Fortunately, none of those stuck.
Not as much info on this image, but the references to Bucky in a top hat as as a football player do seem to match. Interestingly, when I did a reverse image search on Google Images to see if I could find out more, I discovered strikingly similar images of an Arizona Wildcat football player and boxer.
So there you have it – a little fun for a Friday. Happy birthday, Bucky, and On Wisconsin!