Mennonite Weekly Review

BLUFFTON, Ohio — Bluffton University opened the 2010-11 academic year Aug. 31 by welcoming about 270 new students — and one beaver.

The new J. Denny Beaver. — Photo provided

More than a year of planning created J. Denny Beaver, Bluffton’s new mascot, unveiled at the opening convocation.

Cody Litwiller, a senior marketing major from Hopedale, Ill., did much of the work this summer.

Litwiller’s research of mascot marketing elsewhere led to a series of self-produced on-campus posters and online videos that gradually introduced the character and helped define its purpose and significance, right down to its name.

“Cody found that the name is a very important component of the character, a way to capture a historical connection to your institution and tell a story,” said Robin Bowlus, public relations director at Bluffton and a member of the mascot planning committee. Naming the mascot in honor of Dr. J. Denny Weaver, professor emeritus of religion, does both of those things, Bowlus said.

Weaver was a faculty member from 1975 to 2006 and was also Bluffton’s faculty athletics representative for 22 of those years.

“Denny Weaver was a leading theologian and at every sporting event,” Bowlus said, adding that a passion for academics and sports made him a natural choice to be so honored.

Weaver wrote more than 50 scholarly articles and book reviews, wrote and edited five books and was the founding editor of the C. Henry Smith Book Series at Bluffton.

Bluffton’s previous mascot, Bucky Beaver, retired in 2007-08 after more than 20 years of service.

The following year, when planning group members began thinking about a successor, their goals included an athletic-looking character representative of Bluffton’s “power beaver” logo. They also wanted the mascot to be approachable for children and to embody “the spirit of a Bluffton student-athlete,” Bowlus said.