Butler’s Blue IV makes debut at Hinkle Fieldhouse
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The newest and cutest member of the Butler family made his big debut Friday night.
His name is Blue IV, the mascot-in-training you met on News 8’s All Indiana on Wednesday.
Blue IV or Blue was born Oct. 30 at the Fall Creek Place Animal Clinic.
He’s an AKC-registered English Bulldog, in training until the end of the semester when current mascot Trip retires.
One of the big changes too is Blue will be under the care of a new handler named Evan Krauss. For 16 years, Michael Kaltenmark has been the mascot handler at Butler.
Blue was brought out before the game and raised in a manner similar to Simba’s introduction in the movie “The Lion King.”
“It took every fiber in my being not to burst into tears when I heard that the ovation of our fans that I had out there for Blue,” Krauss said. “These past three days have been a combination of my dreams coming true. The second I saw him and everyone erupted made it all come true for me.”
“It’s a little bit bittersweet but I just take a lot of pride in this mascot program and what we did over the years and seeing the crowd response to what we did out there there’s a lot of pride,” said Kaltenmark.
There’s plenty of training that goes into this process, particularly in acclimating a puppy to the loud crowds at Hinkle and other special events.