By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Fame has gone to Pudge the cat’s head. Straight to his limited edition bobblehead.
Overnight, bobbleheads of Pudge, the BGSU football team’s lockerroom cat, hit the marketplace.
The orange exotic shorthair Persian cat deserves the recognition, according to Phil Sklar, the co-founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Earlier this week, Sklar sent out a “heads up” about the latest celebrity bobblehead.
“We always keep our eyes out for unique opportunities,” Sklar said. And Pudge seemed to fit the bill. “Our ears perked up when we heard about him.”
“We’re always watching the news to see what’s going on in the world,” Sklar said.
And one day, Pudge and his owner, George Carlson, went viral.
“We reached out to them right away,” Sklar said.
The officially licensed Pudge bobbleheads have the flat-faced feline wearing an orange and brown BGSU jersey and sitting on a football field-like base. They are being produced by the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum, with the blessings of BGSU and Carlson, who is the team’s long snapper.
The bobblehead museum got word last Friday that the deal was approved by BGSU and Carlson. Sklar had the prototype in the works, so Pudge could be available to his adoring fans as soon as possible.
In a bizarre twist, six BGSU fans stopped by the museum on Friday while they were in the area to see the Falcons women’s basketball team play Marquette. The Falcon fans, with one of them wearing a Pudge the cat T-shirt, inquired about bobbleheads from BGSU.
Sklar informed them that Pudge and his oversized head would soon be adorning a bobble body.
“They were super excited,” he said.
“We know how much Bowling Green and college football fans have loved Pudge this season, and this bobblehead will give fans the chance to have their own mini Pudge,” Sklar said.
The bobblehead museum has more than 10,000 different “celebrities” memorialized, with many of them being animals. Some more obscure than others.
There’s the “rally possum” that brought an unexpected win for the Cleveland Browns, and the “rally squirrel” credited with a last minute victory for the St. Louis Cardinals.
“That was a pretty big one,” Sklar said of the squirrel.
St. Louis also had a bobblehead of the cat that bit the groundskeeper during a game. “We actually did them together,” he said of the man and the mad cat.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, a bobblehead honored the raccoon that climbed a 20-story building.
Then there’s the seal nicknamed “Chappy,” found wandering the streets of New Haven, Connecticut, and Scrim the canine escape artist in New Orleans.
Another biggie was Rockefeller the Owl, living in the Christmas tree in New York City’s Rockefeller Square.
But the vast majority of the bobbling head characters are humans ranging from Pope Leo and the 3 Stooges, to Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Caitlin Clark, Ritchie Valens and Anthony Fauci.
“Ohio is really well represented,” Sklar said, crediting a man nicknamed “Bobblehead Bob” from Akron who donated about 1,500 to the museum.
Sklar has since added Freddie and Frieda to the list of potential bobbles. And who knows, if Pudge sells out, he may get a second chance at bobble fame.
“Maybe catching a football,” Sklar suggested.
Like many other items in the U.S., the bobblehead market is seeing prices mushroom due to tariffs. The tariffs on the characters were initially 145% and are now 20%.
“You don’t know what they will be in a month, or year,” Sklar said.
Following are some details Pudge fans may be interested in:
- The bobbleheads, which are expected to ship in March, will be available at this link.
- Each bobblehead is individually numbered to only 2,025.
- The bobbleheads are $35 each plus an $8 flat-rate shipping charge per order.
Not bad for a feline whose life basically consisted of eating, sleeping, and eating more, just a couple months ago. Carlson and Pudge lived a quiet life together until a practice earlier in the season when Carlson decided the team could use a little lift. The cat was an instant morale booster in the locker room.
A teammate posted a video of the “very chill” Pudge.
“It blew up from there,” Carlson said. “Everybody loves Pudge, so I hear. He’s a very approachable cat.”
Prior to the season opener, Pudge became a social media sensation when a video was posted on TikTok that showed the feline inside the locker room at the Sebo Athletic Center. Since then, the big orange cat has racked up the shares and likes across multiple platforms and gotten shoutouts on the likes of “Good Morning America.”
Pudge has his own page on Instagram (unclepudgy) and wears his own jersey when inside the locker room. Through an NIL deal, T-shirts featuring a cartoon caricature of Pudge wearing a BG helmet are being sold.
When the Falcon football team kicked off the 2025 season, Pudge’s fame started to skyrocket, with a cameo on ESPN and his sideline debut going viral.
Pudge is now a fixture at games – often hanging out with Carlson’s dad, who is a veterinarian.
For a cat of humble beginnings, this level of fame was quite unexpected.
Though he has his own security detail at football games, and his own merchandise line, fame had reportedly not gone to Pudge’s head. Until now.
“He has no idea” how famous he is, his owner, George Carlson said in October as his cat made a celebrity visit to a local elementary school.
