When Neil A. Grauer first drew a blue jay for a comic strip, he had no idea that it would later be the University's emblem emblazoned on the history of Hopkins through lacrosse gear and tattoos.
Grauer's blue jay, born in 1965 for a comic strip for the Johns Hopkins News-letter, is currently being honored as a special collection at the Milton S. Eisenhower Library.
When Grauer became the cartoonist for the News-letter in 1965 he was primarily interested in doing political cartoons.
However, as Grauer explains, then co-editor Caleb Deschanel suggested a comic strip.
"Caleb said 'why don't you create a comic strip with a blue jay in it and you can make topical comments,'" Grauer said. "They thought it would just be a fun feature," he added.
Branching off from simply the cartoon strip, Grauer began to sketch sports illustrations with the blue jay.
"I designed the logo for the sports editor column," he said. "There's the jay nest with the blue jay sitting in it with a fedora and a typewriter."
The sports cartoons of the Blue Jay, in which the Grauer Blue Jay is shown, beating up the opponents' mascots, have remained particularly popular.
Grauer explained how it was five years after he graduated, in 1969, that he received a call from Henry Cicerone, then head lacrosse coach, asking Grauer to draw a whole new set of blue jay cartoons, which would lead to the still continuing tradition of Grauer sketching a set of cartoons for Hopkins Lacrosse each year.
"Chic (Cicerone) said 'you know Bob Scott used these old News-letter cartoons of yours and he thumb-tacked them up to the billboard and they're all tattered and yellow and full of thumbtack holes, and I want a whole new set!" he explained.
"I started to draw a whole new set and I've done a new set every year since; sometimes I come up with new drawings but a lot of the time the drawings stay the same. I don't believe in changing a winning formula," Grauer added.
In the mid-1990s the athletic department decided to have a professional illustrator create the blue jay profile that has since been adopted as the official emblem.
Grauer explains this change as partially due to the affinity the Hopkins Lacrosse Team, more than any other team, had with the Grauer Blue Jay.
"It was primarily because of Chic that it became associated with the lacrosse team since he had it put on caps and bumper stickers," Grauer said. "It seems feasible to me for the athletic department to have many versions of the blue jay; if you look at Disney, there's merchandise with all three types of Mickey from the original guy with spots for eyes to the current Fantasia Mickey," he added.
Since having illustrated the Grauer Blue Jay, Grauer has worked in numerous places ranging from the Baltimore News-American, an evening paper which went out of business in 1986, to his current position with Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Grauer has written one book about the Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and is currently working on another book; he also writes articles for the Johns Hopkins Medical Magazine and for many other monthly publications put out by the office of marketing and communications.
Although he has not done many sketches or cartoons since the Blue Jay, he wrote a book entitled Wits & Sages, which profiles 12 syndicated journalists.
"It is a series of profiles and caricatures and I illustrated that," he said. "And occasionally I've been able to illustrate for feature articles," he added.
Though his cartooning days have started to lull, Grauer is proud to say that the Grauer Blue Jay endures.
"I'm not in the Hall of Fame but my blue jay is; in 1977 Bob Scott asked me to do a big poster of the blue jay, which he had framed and hung in the athletic center conference room for nearly 20 years, and then it was taken down when they went to the new blue jay and it ended up in the Hall of Fame," Grauer said.
He added furthermore that the blue jay was featured on the helmets of the lacrosse team for the 2007 championship as well as being sported by some lacrosse players permanently as tattoos.
Grauer stated that he had no idea at the time of the drawing that the cartoon he sketched would endure with such popularity, but that he was very flattered by its continuing life.
"I'm just extremely grateful that this cartoon character I created 43 years ago is still popular; it's hard to put your finger on why he's popular," Grauer noted. "I think he's popular and never really lost his popularity because he has a personality and that personality comes out," he added.
Grauer cited both L. Frank Baum and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose respective works, The Wizard of Oz and the Sherlock Holmes series, have been so adored by the world that when the authors tried to kill the characters or write about other things, the public balked.
"I'm not interested in killing the Blue Jay but will keep drawing him," Grauer said, referring to how the blue jay will endure as his legacy.
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