When we refer to “bat” dog, we mean a different kind of bat.

Around 2017, Boise State University football – the Broncos – had a spectacular kickoff specialist. He was so good that his abilities were featured on ESPN, and videos of him routinely went viral.  His name was Kohl, and for a seven-year-old, he was singular.

Oh, and he was a Labrador Retriever.

Sadly, we refer to Kohn in the past tense because he passed away in the arms of his loving family in 2021.  The eleven year old succumbed to a cancerous tumor found on his spinal column, but Kohl left this world as perhaps the most popular “sports dog” in pro and college sports. In his heyday, Kohl was a fan favorite during football games when he fetched the kickoff tee and run off the field to the crowd cheering “he’s a good boy!”  He had been adopted by his owner and trainer, Britta Closson, as a four year old, and true to his nature as a sporting breed, Kohl’s exceptional retrieving skills emerged while hunting with Closson’s dad.

His sports-retrieving career was launched with the minor league baseball team, the Boise Hawks, where he picks up bats during games. Someone from Boise State’s football team noticed Kohl’s bat-retrieving skills, and asked Britta if Kohl could retrieve a football tee.  Affirming that he probably could, Britta started to train Kohl to transfer his formal retrieve to a football tee, and the rest is Tee and Bat Dog history. During his “professional” life, he made more than 500 media appearances on local and national TV. His passing was sad news to his many fans, but Kohl passed the torch off to his son, Blitz, who made his debut during Boise State football’s first home game of 2021 against the University of Texas (Kohl’s other son, Ripkin, became the new Bat Dog for the Durham Bulls Minor League Baseball team, and Tee Dog for the North Carolina State University football team).

A video about Kohl and Blitz:

See his son, Blitz, in action:

The entertaining kick-offs at Boise State didn’t begin with Kohl. The tradition started in the ’90s with a black Labrador named Kicks who retired in 1998. In 2010, the tradition was returned with Zee, but our sense is that Kohl brought the tee-retrieving dog concept to a whole new level.

Nor have Kohl and Blitz been the only tee-dogs in football. “Pint,” a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, started retrieving the kickoff tee for UC Davis football games in 2012 and did so nearly 300 times in his career. Owned by UC Davis veterinary medicine professor, Danika Bannasch, Pint also participated in hunting competition but retired from football in 2021.  Meet Pint:

The aforementioned dogs are part of a family of tee, bat, and ball dogs whom we’ll cover in the future, but we wanted you to “meet” Kohl, Blitz and Pint. They aren’t mascots, they are dogs with “a job in sports.”

Top image photo by Hayffield L on Unsplash