Detroit Bulldog Club

The Detroit Bulldog Club was founded in 1920 and incorporated in 1928. The club's constitution was amended in 1958, revised in 1973, 1974, 1983, 1990, and is currently under revision.

The annual Mother’s Day Puppy Match is a huge success. The DBC, teamed with the Toledo Bulldog Club, hosts annual specialty shows that usually draw more than 100 entries 5-point major shows.

George Cromer has served as DBC Historian for 20 years, preceded by Marge Blaker. The original club Historian was Bertha Branion, mother of breeder-judge Marilyn Dundas, who resides in Florida.

DBC has retained scrapbooks, artifacts and maintained club files, along with organizing annual awards and champion medals to breeders who are club members.

Prominent members of the DBC, in terms of club activity include: Frank and Mary Ward and their daughter, Francie, and Joe Collins, all joining in the early 1960s; Ed and Barb Scully, Jack and Shelly Segall, Carol Urban, Anne Hier, and George and Julie Cromer all joined in the 1970s. Ed Scully has donated a huge historical collection and computer database to the BCA archives.

The Detroit and Michigan Bulldog Club, Inc. began as the Detroit Bulldog Club in 1920. Incorporated in 1928, the “and Michigan” was added to the name in the 1930s to draw members from other parts of the state. Meetings were held in members’ homes and at the YMCA and other public venues.

Mr. Baumgartner of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, was the club president in 1928. Wilson Bow, later to become Moss Bow Dog Shows (and today known as MB-F Dog Shows) was the club secretary. Puppy matches were held and specialty shows began in the early 1930s.

The club logo featured Minerva, the Goddess of Wisdom, awarding a laurel wreath to a victorious Bulldog. The original dog in the logo was “crudely sketched,” but was replaced by a Hutchinson drawing.

The Club’s 75^th anniversary medallion featured Hutchinson’s dog along with a slimmer version of the original Minerva.

The Detroit Bulldog Club has been the host for at least four of BCA Division II National Specialty Shows.

The club’s most famous member was Dr. Edward M. Vardon from the late 1930s until his death in the early 1970s. As president of the BCA in the 1950s, he was instrumental in making the BCA a truly national organization..

His dogs were some of the club’s most famous in the BCA Hall of Fame. Ch.Vardona Frosty Snowman won a record five National specialties in 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1962.

The Club has held monthly puppy matches, active Futurity wagering, Bulldog Rescue parades, bench shows with actual benches made by a club member, and most recently a three-generation Pedigee Sweepstakes and other public events that have drawn in excess of 200 dogs.

The Club has helped Bulldog rescuers from many parts of the country and has been financially self-sufficient in that effort.

DBC was the first Bulldog club that was not a member of the American Kennel Club. It's shows were the first to be licensed through the BCA.

The DBC is primarily a club for southeastern Michigan Bulldog fanciers. Of its 75 members, approximately 10% live elsewhere in the state and 5% live in Ohio and Ontario, Canada.

Most are within two hours of club meetings held at the Berkley Community Center in Berkley, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, at 1400 Robina Ave. Membership has grown steadily for the last several years.

Current club secretary is Cindy Chelovich. Membership chairman is Shelly Segall.

Historian is George Cromer.