BY PAUL HUGHES
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
HARTFORD – State representatives voted overwhelmingly to name the Siberian Husky the state dog after a visit Wednesday from the NCAA champion UConn men’s basketball team.
The Husky is the longtime mascot of the University of Connecticut dating back to a 1935 student poll to pick one for the state school.
The state House voted 128-18 to approve a bill naming the Siberian Husky as the state dog and the lollipop as the state candy. The legislation now heads to the state Senate for possible final legislative approval.
The House vote coincided with the annual Husky Day, but the timing was hardly coincidental.
House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, and House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, announced the House would be voting on the state dog and lollipop bill during a news briefing Wednesday morning.
Since the 1990s, the UConn men’s and women’s basketball teams and football team visit the Capitol every spring on Husky Day to thank the General Assembly and governor for supporting university athletics.
This year, only the men’s basketball team and coaches made the bus trip from UConn’s Storrs campus following the team winning its second NCAA championship in two years. They received a hero’s welcome.
Sen. Eric C. Berthel, R-Watertown, introduced the first bill to name the Siberian Husky as the state dog in 2021, but the bill received neither a committee hearing or vote. The first bill to name the lollipop as the state candy was proposed in 2022.
Berthel reintroduced his bill in 2023, and the Government Administration and Elections Committee also introduced a bill last year to name the Siberian Husky as the state dog, a shelter pet as the state pet, and the lollipop as the state candy. The committee bill was reported out to the House, but was never called for a full vote of the House.
The 2024 bill naming the Husky as the state dog and the lollipop as the state candy is the first to receive approval in either legislative chamber since the two designations were first proposed.
During the House debate, Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, the House chairman of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, recalled the hearing testimony from UConn’s mascot Jonathan XV delivered by handler Laura Centanni.
“It was extraordinarily compelling,” Blumenthal joked. “Even more compelling, most recently, was the excellent performance of both the men’s and women’s basketball teams for the University of Connecticut.”
The women’s basketball team lost a Final Four matchup in the NCAA women’s tournament.
Rep. Gale L. Mastrofrancesco, R-Wolcott, the ranking House member of the Government Administration and Elections Committee, supported naming the Husky as the state dog.
“I think it is very appropriate for the state of Connecticut,” she said.
