Duke Dog
Duke Dog
The Duke Dog is the official mascot for the James Madison University Dukes. 'Dukes' was made the official nickname in 1947, and was named after the University's president from 1919-1949, Samuel Page Duke. However, the bulldog was not chosen to represent the Dukes until the 1972-1973 school year.
After a decade of the original costume, Dr. Ray V. Sonner revamped the appearance of the Duke Dog in 1982-83 school year. On November 28, 1982, Duke Dog appeared in JMU's first home game of the men's basketball season, against The Virginia Military Institute.
In 2004, Duke Dog was named a finalist for the Capital One Mascot Bowl. After eleven weeks of voting, Duke Dog won its matchup each week to finish a perfect 11-0. The next closest mascot finish with a record of 6-5. Although Duke Dog overwhelmingly won in polling, the contest was based also on scores from a panel of judges, and Monte from the University of Montana ended up winning the contest overall (ironically, JMU had just defeated Montana in the I-AA football championship less than a month prior). Since this incident, Capital One has changed the contest so that the popular vote is the sole determinant of the winner of the Mascot Bowl.
Duke Dog - The Train
The Great Western Railway 3200 Class (or 'Earl' Class) was a design of 4-4-0 steam locomotive for passenger train work. The nickname for this class was Dukedog since the locomotives were composed of former Duke Class boilers on Bulldog Class frames. As such they were one of the last steam locomotive classes to retain outside frames.
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the south west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835, and ran its first trains in 1838. It was engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.