By Felicia Taraczkozy
Over spring break, Union University’s president stayed busy singing in the Vatican in Rome, touring Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum, passing out evangelism tracts in Florida, receiving a parking ticket, visiting the St. Louis zoo, tanning on the beach, meeting a politician, and even enjoying the beautiful weather picnicking with friends.
Only it was not the real Dr. David S. Dockery who traveled the world but rather the DSD bobblehead version that kept students company during spring break. From Tampa, Fla., to Providence, R.I.; St. Louis to Memphis; and Romania to Italy the infamous DSD bobblehead added fun to spring breaks everywhere.
On Feb. 24, the Athletic Department gave away 300 DSD bobbleheads to fans as they entered basketball game that night. Since then, the bobbleheads have become a new trend on campus.
Stephen Capps, senior biblical studies major, created a photo blog, “The Adventuring David S. Dockery Bobblehead,” shortly after the release. The blog challenged students to submit pictures and stories of the DSD bobblehead and spring break travels. Students said they liked having the bobbleheads along.
“It added some more fun to our trip getting to try to think up creative places to take a picture of it,” said Scott Kahler, sophomore engineering major, who took the bobblehead to the Great Smokey Mountains along with sophomore sports management majors Bryan Moyer and Brett Barry.
Several students had trouble keeping the DSD bobbleheads together over the break.
Evidently, he was not up for the heavy-duty traveling students were expecting from him.
“Unlike the real DSD, this little guy is not built very tough,” said Emily Anderson, junior theater and speech major who worked with SOS Memphis over spring break. “Traveling with him on a construction site was a bit unnerving.”
A few groups of students even had to operate on the fragile DSD bobblehead while they traveled. Josh Garcia, junior English major, took the bobblehead along with him to Pittsburg. He had to perform surgery after the head fell off in his backpack.
“I prescribed bed rest for him for the remainder of the trip,” Garcia said. “But I left the curtains open so he could look out the window.”
Anne Richoux, freshman family studies major, said, “We had to use hot glue to keep him together, but he struggled throughout the week.”
Richoux took the bobblehead along with her on GO Tampa. While visiting, the bobblehead helped to pass out evangelism cards and the team said they had a great time with him along.
Students said the most enjoyable aspect of taking the bobbleheads on spring break was the strange looks and comments from strangers.
“Naturally, any place we went we got some strange looks for carrying a bobblehead with us,” Kahler said. “However, that was part of the fun of taking him with us.”
Overall, students all across campus said they had a blast sharing a piece of DSD with their friends, family and complete strangers from around the world.
“He went everywhere with us, bringing a smile wherever we went,” Anderson said.
Kahler added, “Having the bobblehead with us on the trip definitely made for a more enjoyable and memorable trip. It was the next best thing to having the real DSD on our trip with us.”
What was the real DSD up to during Spring break? While students were taking a break from writing papers and reading for class, the real Dockery was embracing the opportunity to work on his writing projects. His projects included a new multi-authored project for which he is serving as editor, titled “Faith and Learning: A Handbook for Christian Higher Education,” as well as a piece he is writing for Crossway called “Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition.” He also spent time with his wife, Lanese, and current and former trustees at the last two NAIA women’s championship games.
“And, of course, I watched some of the “March Madness” NCAA Basketball games Thursday through Sunday,” Dockery said.
See the video of the DSD bobbleheads here.
