Following the abandonment of the “Indian” mascot in the 1970s, Dartmouth has been without an official mascot for decades. On October 12th, 2003, in response to a Student Assembly poll to pick a new mascot, Jack-O-Lantern members Nic Duquette ‘04 and Chris Plehal ‘04 set out “to create a mascot that wasn’t racist or sexist, yet entirely unacceptable” and conceived of Keggy the Keg, a perfectly sophomoric encapsulation of the Animal House fraternity, heavy-drinking Dartmouth stereotype. Keggy’s first public appearance was during the halftime show at Dartmouth’s Homecoming football game against Columbia on October 25th, 2003, and it quickly grew in popularity, appearing at football games and other functions to raucous fanfare. In the years since, Keggy has gained critical acclaim from national media like ESPN, HuffPost, Playboy, and Deadspin, and famously continues to appear at Homecoming and Phi Delt fraternity’s Block Party during Green Key weekend, as well as various other events throughout the academic year.
Members of the Jack-O-Lantern are Keepers of the Keg—to put it in legalese, we own the trademarks to Keggy the Keg’s name and likeness. We hold these trademarks to support Jack-O-Lantern fundraisers, but, more importantly, to protect the Keggy tradition of harmless fun for current Dartmouth students and those to come. In line with the wishes of Keggy’s creators, Nic Duquette and Chris Plehal, the Jack-O-Lantern’s historical policy on Keggy usage has been to disallow companies or other corporate entities from utilizing the Keggy character for profit. In contrast, the Jack-O-Lantern encourages Dartmouth students to adapt the character for personal or charitable use so long as the adaptation abides by the following guidelines:
- Must not be sold for profit (internal club gear and sales for charity are allowed!)
- Must use either an official Jack-O-Lantern-owned design or an original design approved by the Jack-O-Lantern (to ensure there are no design ownership issues and that Keggy isn’t being represented in a disparaging way)
- The Jack-O-Lantern name must be highlighted in any promotional materials, particularly if the merchandise sale is open to campus (with charity fundraisers, for example)
- Doesn’t conflict with a Jack-O-Lantern merchandise sale (for example, we’d prefer there isn’t a separate Keggy merch sale going on while we’re running our annual Green Key merch sale)
If you’re a Dartmouth student who’d like to utilize Keggy’s image, please email us first at Jack-O-Lantern@dartmouth.edu so we can consider your request. If it follows the above guidelines then we’re 99% likely to approve it!
Keep on Keggin’ on.
