Men’s – 317

Butler University was founded as North Western Christian by Ovid Butler in 1855. He choose “Christians” as the school mascot. Sometime after the school had been rename in honor of its founder, Butler was suffering a poor football season in 1919. As losses mounted, people grew wary of the “Christians” nickname. Before a big game against the rival Franklin “Baptists”, the Butler Collegian was trying to conceive of a way to fire people up when “Shimmy”, a bulldog owned by one of the fraternities, wandered into their office. Shimmy inspired cartoonist George Dickson to draw a bulldog labeled “Butler” taking a bite out of John The Baptist. Butler lost the game, but the nickname “Bulldogs” stuck.