BY KONNER METZ
Editor-In-Chief
The university’s two mascots have each gained some notoriety this year in Milwaukee.
YoUDee and Baby Blue are now both included in the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum collection. On Sept. 8, Baby Blue, YoUDee’s younger sibling, was officially added and made available for purchase. YoUDee was released this past January, alongside many other college mascot bobbleheads as part of National Bobblehead Day.
Hall of Fame co-founder and CEO Phil Sklar said YoUDee was one of the best sellers out of around 30 college bobbleheads, which fueled the addition of another Delaware mascot.
“We’re excited to be releasing the first bobblehead featuring Baby Blue,” Sklar said. “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.”
Why were YoUDee and Baby Blue added?
It turns out that the YoUDee bobblehead made a quicker appearance than originally expected this past January. Sklar noted the mascot was added “kind of by mistake.”
The Hall of Fame had accidentally noted Delaware as a school to include in its mascot bobblehead collection, Sklar said. In reality, they were looking to add Delaware State University’s hornet mascot, Too-Fly, as part of a string of mascots from historically Black colleges and universities.
Too-Fly was ultimately included, but so was YoUDee. It became a massive success, with many in-state and out-of-state fans ordering the YoUDee mascot bobblehead, Sklar said.
According to Town Square Delaware, one version of the YoUDee bobblehead was posted on eBay for $216.99 back in February. After the first batch sold out, more became available, and the opportunity arose to add YoUDee’s younger sibling.
Sklar explained that another reason for adding Delaware’s mascots is that they are two of the most unique college mascots, frequently appearing on lists ranking notable college mascots.
How to purchase the bobbleheads
Bobbleheads of both YoUDee and Baby Blue can be purchased online. YoUDee is $35 and Baby Blue is $30, plus $8 for shipping per order.
YoUDee stands at eight inches, while Baby Blue is six-and-a-half inches. Each bobblehead is individually numbered up to 2,023.
The bobbleheads are all officially licensed through the Collegiate Licensing Company, which is affiliated with the university and protects its name and trademarks.
Who are YoUDee and Baby Blue?
The university’s main mascot, YoUDee, was first conceptualized in 1911 in a yearbook titled “The Blue Hen.”
Today’s YoUDee was born in 1993, while sidekick Baby Blue hatched in 1999. The mascots make appearances across the state and East Coast, from campus events to professional games outside the state of Delaware.
Last spring The Review did a deep dive into the mascots’ histories and what goes into their presence at campus events.
Backstory behind the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum
Around a decade ago, Sklar and Brad Novak, a friend and now-president, had a bobblehead collection “growing out of control.” They decided to start producing bobbleheads themselves and open up a hall of fame and shop.
In 2014, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in Milwaukee, and the bobbleheads started to be produced. In the years since, the wobbling figurines have encompassed areas such as sports, TV, pop culture, politics and more.
The museum was officially opened to the public in 2019 and often hosts visitors from around the country, with a wide collection of thousands of unique bobbleheads.
It is the only museum open dedicated to bobbleheads. In 2018, mascot bobbleheads began to be produced and available for purchase, and now the university’s own two mascots have joined the collection.