Autumn Spectacle: Handsome Dan

Handsome Dan
By AutumnSpectacle.com staff E-mail
November 19, 2008

It’s Yale vs. Harvard - the 125^th playing of The Game - and it has Ivy League title implications. Harvard (8-1, 5-1 Ivy) needs the victory to have a shot at the conference crown.Yale, (6-3, 4-2 Ivy) would love to ruin the Crimson’s party. And Yale has a proven weapon as they seek the upset. When the Bulldogs travel to Cambridge this Saturday, Handsome Dan XVI will lead the invasion.

The history and tradition of Handsome Dan is one of courage, tenacity and loyalty to that inner Bulldog warming the heart of all Yalies and college football fans everywhere (everywhere except, of course, Harvard and Princeton).

In 1889, Andrew B. Graves, a tackle on the football team, saw a bulldog sitting in front of a blacksmith shop and negotiated to buy the dog for $65.00. He cleaned up the dog and named him “Handsome Dan."

Dan followed Graves everywhere around campus, and the students quickly adopted Dan as the Yale mascot – the first live mascot in the nation. Before football and baseball games, Dan was led across the field, and a tradition was founded. A local newspaper reported, “He was a big white bulldog, with one of the greatest faces of a dog of that breed ever carried”. And the Hartford Courant, “In personal appearance, he seemed like a cross between an alligator and a horned frog.” Dan won first prize at the Westminster Dog Show and at least thirty other first prize ribbons in the U.S. and Canada.

Dan would never associate with anyone but students, and he became a beloved fixture at Yale. He was taken home to England in 1897 and died in 1898. Graves had Dan stuffed and returned to Yale for display in the old gymnasium. When the old gym was torn down, Handsome Dan was sent to the Peabody museum, then placed in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium at Yale, where he stands today in a sealed glass trophy case.

Legend holds that in 1908, Harvard coach Percy Haughton strangled a bulldog to death in the Harvard locker room to fire up his team. Harvard 4, Yale 0.

35 years after the death of Handsome Dan, the freshman class purchased Handsome Dan II. He was kidnapped by Harvard students before the 1934 Harvard-Yale football game, and Yale students were later horrified by a photograph of Dan II contentedly having a snack at the foot of the John Harvard statue in Harvard Yard.

Handsome Dan V, also “Bull,” joined the team on a trip to Princeton. Very popular, he loved the adulation of crowds and public appearances.

Handsome Dan VI stepped in as Yale’s mascot at age eight weeks, but died mysteriously at two years old. Reports were that he died either from fright caused by fireworks at the Yale – Harvard game or from shame at the sight of Yale losing to both Harvard and Princeton in the same year.

Handsome Dan IX enjoyed adulation and endured suffering, appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated in November,1957 and falling off the dock at the Yale Boathouse where he nearly drowned. News reports say that he had to be resuscitated after his head was embedded in the mud.

Handsome Dan X, also “Woodie” and “Boodnick,” was a stout 74 pounds and won Best Bulldog at the Cape Cod Kennel Club confirmation show. He is credited with playing an instrumental role in Yale’s perfect 9-0 season in 1960.

Handsome Dan XII, also“Bingo,” is the only female Handsome Dan, to date.
She was stolen by four Princeton students, dressed as Yale cheerleaders. The kidnappers held a press conference when they returned Bingo.

Handsome Dan XIII, also “Maurice,” was the consummate Handsome Dan. He held office longer than any Handsome Dan, serving from 1984 to 1995 when he retired, and then came out of retirement to serve again in 1996. He was beloved by students and fans, and appeared in Sports Illustrated in 1989. He was known for his patience when posing for photos, as he posed for game programs, brochures and notably, for the 1991 Christmas card, wearing a Santa Claus hat. He would sing along with the Yale fight song and “play dead“ when asked whether he would rather die or join Harvard. He was hostile toward mascots of opposing teams, attacking the Princeton tiger and the Brown bear. He also holds the distinction of being ejected from a Yale-Harvard game by a policeman on horseback.

Handsome Dan XVI, the present Handsome Dan, was selected in April 2005. Also known as “Magnificent Mugsy Ragoon,” he’s 69 pounds and was picked for his gregarious personality, good health and his ability to deal with the raucous Yale Precision Marching Band. At his first Harvard-Yale game, while chewing a toy Harvard football player, he was lured into the Harvard student section by two Harvard undergraduates. Yale University Police recovered him shortly, but without his Yale sweater. He has recovered nicely, and enters The Game 2008 a much wiser Dan – in search of revenge and the satisfaction which only a glorious victory can deliver.

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