Life at Hope College

Throwback Thursday: SUNDOG 1981 Edition

When I say SUNDOG, what do you picture?

Personally, I see some sort of sun salutation/upward dog yoga pose combo or a happy dog sprawled out in a patch of sunlight shining through the window.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up KnowHope, saw the ad saying, “Career Center Trivia Night in Phelps, SUNDOG view,” and made the connection.

Yep. That metal modern art piece outside of Phelps that makes me think of those giant machine things in Star Wars is called the SUNDOG.

What I think of when I see the SUNDOG.

Naturally, I turned to Google to try to dig up some information on this mysterious SUNDOG piece which led me to an article in The Anchor (Hope’s student newspaper) from September 17, 1981.

The article focused on this masterpiece is entitled “Beauty or Beast?” and begins on page 3, if you feel intrigued to read further. The article included reactions from Hope faculty and students about the piece which was then brand new. Some enjoyed the new statue created by artist Bill Mayer. Others questioned why the College would put funds toward it over something else. Many just wondered what really is a SUNDOG?

I dare say that over the last 34 years the thoughts of the SUNDOG by the people of Hope have remained rather similar. I for one have long questioned what the statue was called and I am sure I am not alone in that. So, perhaps the SUNDOG has been doing exactly what is was built to do since then: make people ask questions and inspire other great works like this gem of a comic:

These four frames say it all.

I hope you enjoyed this Throwback Thursday edition as much as I did. Thanks for reading! Until next week, have fun and go say hi to the SUNDOG for me.

~Erin
For more thoughts and pictures on life at Hope you can follow me on Twitter (@HopeErin18) or Instagram (@e_delaney333)

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