小优传媒

J. Denny and Jenny Beaver

小优传媒鈥檚 official mascots, J. Denny Beaver and Jenny Beaver, are lively symbols of school spirit, tradition, and community involvement. Each year they appear at athletic events, student activities, recruitment events, and more 鈥� all while keeping their identities a closely guarded secret until the annual reveal.

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Become a Mascot: Auditions & Selection

Want to be in the suit? Applications for the 2026 mascot season are now open! 

Bluffton uses a secretive, audition-based process where identity is top secret from start to finish. Including the application process, so keep your app a secret! Applicants go through:

• An digital application
• In-person interview with the selection committee
• Performance audition in the suit

Mascot hopefuls are encouraged to learn J. Denny鈥檚 and Jenny鈥檚 mannerisms before auditioning. Talk to a former mascot performer to prepare 鈥� but remember, secrecy is part of the tradition!

Apply today!

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History of J. Denny Beaver

More than a year of planning culminated with the introduction of J. Denny Beaver, as Bluffton's mascot in September 2010. Naming the mascot in honor of Dr. J. Denny Weaver, professor emeritus of religion, captures a historical connection and tells a story.

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

BUCKY BEAVER, the previous mascot, retired in 2007-08 after more than 20 years of service. He asked to retire with little fanfare so he could return to the banks of The Riley with little intrusion from the local paparazzi. In an alumnote update, he mentioned enjoying his retirement, building dams with tree limbs broken from storm damage and spending time visiting with friends on the banks near the Mennonite Home Communities of Bluffton. 

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.

New traditions of the mascot include 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 students serving as the mascot. 

In fall 2014, Jenny Beaver made her debut on campus to share the mascot duties. The eventual addition of a female mascot had been envisioned when J. Denny was introduced, in order to allow shorter students to "get in the suit." Get Jenny's story.  

J. Denny's and Jenny's costumes were 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 paper-mache head and furry body made and donned by students in 1967. But the beaver mascot goes back 40 years before that, to 1926-27. 

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