A FROG IS BORN
During Foothills’ pioneer international tournament trip to New Zealand in 1985, we became very impressed with New Zealand’s mascot; a little Kiwi bird dressed in a do-bok. This inspired us to come up with a new mascot of our own. Sr. Master Burkhart’s wife and fellow Foothills black belt, Robin Burkhart, suggested that our beloved new mascot be a frog! Having collected these little green creatures since childhood, they have always held a special place in Robin’s heart. In fact, on her and Sr. Master Burkhart’s first Christmas together as a young couple in 1980, he gave her a giant stuffed frog, about four feet tall. She put a do-bok on it, with appropriate patches and belt, and our official mascot was born. Froggie’s fame soon caught on and he really complimented the Foothills free and fun spirit, making him the hit of the United States Taekwon-Do Federation. So much so, that several affiliate schools all over the country adopted woodpeckers, turtles, tigers, flamingos and even armadillos. Froggie is still around but, for his own safety, he is very discerning as to which events he attends. Mascot thefts and ransoms have occurred over the years but he has always found his way home, and he remains unscathed by these feeble attempts.
Froggie’s cousin, Mr. Pickles, holds down the fort at the Ken-Caryl branch of Foothills. Bonded by green blood, Mr. Pickles has sworn a pact of allegiance to Froggie against amphibian abductions. Frog Power Unite!
A little side note: if you look carefully at our Froggie logo, you will see that the “fly” Froggie is swiping at, is actually the University of Colorado Buffalo. When Julie Farris designed the logo in 1986, she thought this would be a subtle but fun tribute to our sister school, C.U. Taekwon-Do, led at the time by Master Rob Tobin and now by Senior Master Jonas Pologe. The C.U. Taekwon-Do school is now under the name of Boulder Taekwon-Do.
A Family Affair
In 2012, a new logo was born, this one a tadpole. “Tad” is Froggie’s little tadpole brother and he represents all of our little tadpoles in class (kids 12 and under). He made his debut at the 2012 Maestas Team Challenge, when our young students formed the team “When Tadpoles Attack.” He will make appearances from time to time, but our Froggie logo is still the face of Foothills.
