If you live in Philadelphia and happens to wander into Reliance Triangle in Fairmount Park at Fairmount Ave and 25th Street, you can’t fail to notice a 500 pound Bullmastiff. 

We should add that it’s made of bronze and sits on a concrete and limestone base.

Entitled “Gamekeeper’s Night Dog,” the sculpture by Victoria Davila was erected in 1989. Is it a tribute to “Butkus,” the Bullmastiff owned by the movie heavyweight boxer, Rocky Balboa? We don’t know,  but the movies were all filmed in Philadelphia, so maybe!  We do know that the statue that’s 1.5 times larger than a real Bullmastiff dog was donated by a member of the Delaware Valley Bullmastiff Club, Edward H. Schwartz. A Bullmastiff breeder and exhibitor, Schwartz had a personal passion for documenting Philadelphia’s collection of outdoor sculpture and was famous for creating and sharing slides of the artworks with his friends and family. His proposal for the piece came as a response to the park’s need for a centerpiece after the fountain that been there broke into halves during a move from another location.