If you are new to LetsGoDU or just like to reminisce about the past, we are republishing an article from The University of Denver Magazine from October 22nd, 2010 entitled Alum Works to Build School Spirit. The article is about Damien Goddard and his efforts to build school spirit at DU. On his own, from Houston, Texas, Damien created LetsGoDU and published over 6000 articles and stories. Many of us in distant cities made LetsGoDU our first read of the day. He also designed, developed, and still supports Denver’s ‘unofficial mascot’ Denver Boone. Known for his ability to create excitement and organize big events, Goddard pushed the boundaries of school administrators but was always a steadfast friend of DU athletics, coaches, students, and alums. As we move into our second year of the renewed and refurbished LetsGoDU, we have always tried to make Damien proud in everything we do.

The article below was written by ‘Staff‘ – to protect the author.

Enjoy!

Damien Goddard may be part rebel, but he is all Pioneer.

The University of Denver graduate, blogger and DU hockey uber-fan doesn’t always toe the school line, but his devotion to the hockey program, the fans, and ultimately to DU school spirit us unquestionable.

Goddard, 45, graduated with a business management degree in 1988 and works in his family’s Houston business producing patented plastic widgets for industrial application. But in his spare time, the lifelong bachelor pores over Pioneer hockey related news stories hunting up tidbits from sources around the country for his popular blog, LetsGoDU and promotes activities that are aimed at pumping up fans and students.He’s a regular at games, a force behind the new unofficial Denver Boone Mascot and organizer of parties and events for students and alumni.

“The blog’s entire mission, and its always been the mission, is about school spirit,” Goddard says, “The blog is about hockey, but its theme is school spirit. If you look at the blog any day, you’re just as likely to see shots of the mascot or the band or students cheering or alumni having a good time as you are a hockey player. So people read the blog for the first time and they think it’s a hockey blog, but it’s really about school spirit.”

The blog he’s describing is no secret to hockey fans. Even fans from some of DU’s rivals post comments on the site. It got its start in 2005 and quickly went from 30 hits a day to 1,000 visitors daily during the season. It’s a mixture of articles written by Goddard and Gene Lake (BA political science ’78), sprinkled with links to stories others have written in newspapers and websites and has built a strong relationship with editors there.

“We go out of our way to highlight The Clarion to promote their writers and bring the alumni readers back to the Clarion,” Goddard says. “It’s about building the University community.”

The fellowship of alumni and students was spotlighted two years ago when Goddard says he was contacted by one of his support network, Richard Kuerstin (BSBA management ’02), during a resurgence in interest in DU’s old mascot, Boone.

“He wrote me an email and said, “Why don’t you build the damn thing?” Goddard recalls, laughing.

Dozens of donors raised $6,500 and a team worked with a Canadian mascot company to build their vision of a scruffy Pioneer via emails and text messages. The result was a strapping character with a chiseled chin and bright smile. His “skin” tone is specifically non-specific with other tweaks to emphasize that he’s a mascot, not an image of a person. The idea was to create something everyone at DU could rally around, he says. To cap off the process, Goddard and friends paid a DU student, Scott Fuson, to go to mascot camp to learn the ropes.

The University, for its part, while not returning Boone as its mascot, has allowed the mascot to roam the stands, pose for photos and entertain the crowd.

“I still have people who come to me and say, ‘I can’t believe you got away with it.’ Goddard says, “But you have to know we did this for the DU community; we really wanted to help.”

Goddard’s effort to build school spirit, and sometimes test the limits of the administration’s patience, goes back to his college years, a time he refers to as “the best five years of my life”. It started in 1986 when, disappointed by lagging student attendance at games in the old arena, he created what came to be known as the “bleacher creatures”. With promotion and cheers and signs he says he helped build student attendance from about 50 sitting in the student balcony per game to 500.

He laughs now about an early miscue.

“We wanted the students to hold up different colored paper sheets to spell ‘DU’ in the stands,” he recalls. “It completely failed because there weren’t enough students at the game, so we had all this colored paper and they held them up and the players were looking up at us and it didn’t look like anything. And then the students took the paper and they held them up and the players were looking up and it didn’t look like anything. And then the students took the paper and made paper airplanes and threw them out on the ice and they had to delay the game about 10 minutes. It was a disaster.”

Undaunted, he tried again, the next time numbering the paper sheets for a late-game raffle. Students held on to the pages and the stunt worked. Good hearted administrators and athletic officials suffered along with his failures, but never stopped him from trying, he says.

Longtime friend and fellow alum Tom Douglas (BA history ’86) has known Goddard since he served as sports editor of The Clarion. He supports the blog and pitches in as needed, sharing Goddard’s vision for a livelier brand of University camaraderie. The pair teamed up in 2004 to produce a series of school spirit recommendations for DU in a paper titles “Creating Emotional Brands.”

“We want someone who walks into Magness Arena to be marinated in DU tradition and have their senses impacted by all of the things that are special to the Pioneer community,” Douglas says. “Sports bring people onto campus, and our display of school spirit shows them what DU is all about, and that creates the emotional bond., and it makes for more enthusiastic alumni, students, and fans.”

“And that’s not just for hockey,” Goddard says. “It’s basketball, gymnastics, everything that creates the college atmosphere on campus: cheerleaders, bands, mascots, students, fellow alums. The whole night should be a showcase for DU and the students. Schools that have high school spirit have very high alumni support, like Notre Dame, and we’ve always felt that DU can and should have that kind of school spirit.”