Bluffton University opened the 2010-11 academic year Tuesday by welcoming about 270 new students-and one beaver.

More than a year of planning culminated with the introduction of J. Denny Beaver, Bluffton's new mascot, at the annual opening convocation. Doing much of the work this summer was a student, senior Cody Litwiller, a marketing major from Hopedale, Ill.

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.

Click here to view previous mascots.

"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, she said.Weaver was a faculty member from 1975-2006 and also Bluffton's faculty athletics representative for 22 of those years. "Denny Weaver was a leading theologian and at every sporting event," Bowlus noted, adding that "his passion for academics and sports" made him a natural choice to be so honored.

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

The 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, but still approachable for children and embodying "the spirit of a Bluffton student-athlete," Bowlus said.

With the group's membership including Dan Stanowick, a former "Freddie Falcon" at Bowling Green State University, they "really wanted to develop a program built on traditions similar to Bowling Green's" as well, she said.

That is being done through implementation of an audition-based selection process; use of multiple students in the suit in an effort to keep identities secret; training the students characteristics that will be common, such as a walk, regardless of who is in the costume; and, at the end of each year, a ceremony to reveal the identities of seniors serving as the mascot.

College mascots are important "because they're family-friendly ambassadors who symbolize all of the bonds we share as a community," said Stanowick, assistant director of Bluffton's Marbeck Center. "I think good mascots can capture and embody the student spirit of a campus. They really represent every student who is a part of the university and serve as enthusiastic supporters of not only athletics but also campus life."

J. Denny Beaver is scheduled to do just that, with appearances planned at some Marbeck Center Board-sponsored events as well as at athletic events, said Litwiller.

The mascot, he noted, "has to be a stand-up person on campus"-a likeable character that is capable of connecting with many people.

The new beaver costume was created by Street Characters Inc., a Canadian company that has designed mascots for more than 100 colleges and universities and about 30 teams combined in the National Football League, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball.

The costume is at least the third in Bluffton history; the first is believed to be a papier-m^ach'e head and furry body made and donned by students in 1967. But the beaver mascot goes back 40 years before that, to 1926-27.

According to Bluffton's centennial history, Dancing with the Kobzar, longtime coach and athletic director A.C. Burcky suggested then that the beaver was the ideal representative of Bluffton's spirit because of five important characteristics-it was small, resourceful and indefatigable (not tiring out); it "works with twigs, building up large things from small," thereby accomplishing more with less; and it "never does things any worse than its ancestors did," thus working to make the world a better place.

Litwiller's job in the public relations office has "given me a little taste of everything," he said, but the mascot project was a big one. "It's been interesting to see the entire process laid out behind a new product," he said. "Being able to get real-world feedback on decisions we have made in the office will be helpful with decisions I'll make in my future professions."