Denver Boone

Denver Boone was the official mascot of the University of Denver from 1968 to 1998. He was designed by a Walt Disney artist and named by a DU student. Despite being retired and replaced by the DU administration in 1998, he was revived by independent members of the DU student and alumni community in 2009. He now serves in an unofficial capacity at athletic and cultural events at the University of Denver.

From 1867 to the early 1920s, the University of Denver's sports teams were known informally as the "Fighting Parsons" or "Ministers" in homage to the school's Methodist founders. In 1925, a student contest was held to formalize the nickname, and "Pioneers" was chosen in homage to the University of Denver's western settlers, who founded the school 12 years before Colorado became a state and Colorado was a sparsely populated territory.

DU's first live mascot was a bearded character who came to be named "Pioneer Pete" who first appeared in the 1930s. Pioneer Pete resembled a rugged, coonskin capped trapper, revived from Colorado's early pioneer days. His likeness was most closely associated with the DU football program. When the DU football program ceased operations in the early 1960s, Pioneer Pete disappeared as well.

Shortly after the demise of DU's football program came the rise of its hockey program. The school began its search for a mascot. Basketball coach Stan Albeck, was inspired by Walt Disney characters and got in touch with a Disney artist through a DU contact. Disney Studios drew up the designs for DU, based on an updated, softer cartoon version of Pioneer Pete which Disney simply called "Pioneer" and gave it to the DU Theatre Department, which developed the first costume.

DU's Special Events Committee held a contest in the fall of 1968 to find a nickname for the new Pioneer. Steve Kiley, then an undergraduate at DU, won the contest with the "Denver Boone" title. Kiley is rumored to have thought of the name "while exercising his elbow and looking at the bottom end of a glass". Despite his name, Denver Boone was not a symbol or endorsement of any of the positive or negative characteristics of Daniel Boone, "one of the most misunderstood characters of the period surrounding the American Revolution".

DU student Doug Hirsh, a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, volunteered to help out the effort and soon became the first in a long line of Denver Boones. Many of DU's sports uniforms depicted Boone and countless editions of the Clarion contained his likeness. Boone made appearances at May Days, Winter Carnival, and countless other DU activities.

Boone was nearly eliminated during the 1983-84 school year as the student body rejected the "wimpy" Boone and strove for a more masculine prototype. Efforts to replace Boone, which included a contest sponsored by the Clarion, proved unsuccessful as very few alternative mascots were developed. Then in 1985 and '86 (as the hockey team gained notoriety), insecurities turned back into pride. A poll among students showed that the vast majority of students supported Boone.

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