Delaware mascot Baby Blue's bobblehead released to celebrate 2023-2024 academic year

You might be familiar with the saying “two heads are better than one,” but as for what’s even better than that? Two Blue Hens. In bobblehead form.

The University of Delaware has been honored with a second bobblehead to be officially inducted into the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and this time it’s a Baby Blue miniature.

A limited-edition YoUDee bobblehead was released earlier this year for National Bobblehead Day on Jan. 7, and in true younger sibling fashion, Baby Blue couldn’t wait too long before following in YoUDee’s big Blue Hen footsteps.

The officially licensed, limited-edition Baby Blue bobblehead will arrive on Friday, Sept. 8 in celebration of the new academic year, with each figurine numbered up to 2,023.

Baby Blue bobbleheads are available for purchase at the organization’s shop at store.bobbleheadhall.com and cost $30 each plus $8 for flat-rate shipping. If you missed you YoUDee’s release earlier this year, those are available for $38 each.

"We’re excited to be releasing the first bobblehead featuring Baby Blue,” said Phil Sklar, National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum co-founder and CEO.

“We know how passionate Delaware fans are about their school and bobbleheads, which showed when we released the bobblehead of YoUDee earlier this year, so we expect this bobblehead of YouDee’s younger sibling to be very popular as well.”

Blue Hen history lesson 

For those who don’t know, the Blue Hen moniker has ties to the American Revolution. A company of the Delaware Regiment led by Capt. Jonathan Caldwell of Felton in Kent County was a fan of cockfighting and brought blue hens along for his time in the Revolutionary War.

Some stories say Caldwell’s men charged at the enemy yelling, “We’re sons of the Blue Hen and we’re game to the end,” while others say he brought Blue Hens onto the battlefield. In the end, the regiment shared attributes similar to the blue hens — which are known for their ferocity and success in fights — and became known as the Blue Hens’ Chickens.

The Fightin’ Blue Hens of UD have been around since 1911 when the school published its yearbook titled “The Blue Hen." While students often donned various versions of a Blue Hen costume to support UD teams, it wasn’t until the early 1990s that the YoUDee seen marching around Newark today clucked onto the scene.

YoUDee first “hatched” at the Delaware-Lehigh football game in Delaware Stadium on Sept. 4, 1993, but it wasn’t until Nov. 23, 1999, that Baby Blue “hatched” at the Bob Carpenter Center. Both mascots were created by Tom Sapp of Real Characters Inc. in Atlanta.

According to UD lore, Col. George W. YoUDee, the great-great-great-grandfather of the school’s mascots, was cited for bravery in battle in the Revolutionary War, with Caldwell having said of him, “there’s no yellow streak in that chicken. He’s blue to the bone.”

Col. YoUDee was given a gold medal of valor, officially inspiring the blue and gold colors of the Blue Hen lineage.

Nowadays, you can spot the Blue Hen mascots parading around campus and having fun with fellow Blue Hens. Whether they’re cheering on UD sports, photobombing students or shaking their tailfeathers on the Green, the pairing sure knows how to represent the blue and gold.

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More Delaware-themed bobbleheads

YoUDee and Baby Blue stand among other collegiate mascot friends with bobblehead renderings like Cocky of the University of South Carolina Gamecocks, Rameses of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels, and Spike of the Gonzaga University Bulldogs.

Although there have been plenty of Blue Hen bobbleheads over the years, these are the first produced by the hall of fame and museum.

Aside from these releases, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum has a handful of other First State figurines on display.

In February, Too-Fly of the Delaware State University Hornets earned its bobblehead status as part of an HBCU series, and in 2022, a bobblehead of Judy Johnson, the Baseball Hall of Famer raised in Wilmington, was included in the Negro Leagues Field of Legends Bobbleheads.

Joe Flacco, current NFL quarterback for the New York Jets and former Blue Hen quarterback, also can be seen in bobblehead form, along with bobble versions of the pets of the First Family, including first cat Willow and the first dogs Commander, Champ and Major. Ten percent of all sales of Champ and Major bobbleheads are donated to the Delaware Humane Association (now merged with Delaware SPCA and known as Humane Animal Partners), where Major was adopted in 2018.

Got a tip or a story idea? Contact Krys'tal Griffin at kgriffin@delawareonline.com.   

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: UD Baby Blue bobblehead released by bobblehead hall of fame and museum