Clinton Lewis/Daily NewsWestern Kentucky University mascot Big Red watches a video Thursday at E.A. Diddle Arena during the unveiling of a new children's book about him.

Big Red, the wide-mouthed mascot of Western Kentucky University, has appeared in many different places, from football games to baseball hats.

Now, he appears in the pages of a children’s book created by a Bowling Green author and three brothers.

“Go Team!” is a picture book that follows Big Red as he helps four kids build a clubhouse behind a football field – presumably L.T. Smith Stadium.

The book was unveiled Thursday in E.A. Diddle Arena at an event attended by university administrators, friends and family of its creators and Big Red himself, who spent most of his time striking poses and putting giggling kids into his mouth.

“We think this is a wonderful opportunity for Big Red,” university President Gary Ransdell said at the event.

Writing children’s books has been a longtime dream for Julie Allen, the author of “Go Team!.”

The Western graduate said it was her children – twin 4-year-old boys – who inspired her to finally get to work on a book.

“Really it’s just so much of the love that my children have for Big Red,” Allen said of Jacob and Joshua. “It kept encouraging me and inspiring me to follow this dream.”

Allen formed a company called Spirit with brothers Tim and Philip Earnhart to produce the book. Tim owns the Liberty Group, a Bowling Green marketing, advertising and printing In December, Allen got in touch with Philip and Tim Earnhart. She was friends with Tim and had done work with the Liberty Group when she was director of organizational development at Southern Foods. She left that job when her boys were born.

Neither Allen nor Tim Earnhart thinks that basing a children’s book on a college mascot will limit its appeal to just this region.

“The message of the book is not Western does such and such or Big Red is taking you on a tour of the campus,” Allen said.

The book is being advertised in the alumni magazine, which has more than 70,000 subscribers, Allen said.

“In a way I’m glad we already have a built-in audience,” Allen said. “But in another way, I am not limiting that audience because that message goes to children and families.”

Children at the event gravitated toward Big Red, and most seemed to like the idea that he was now in a book. Many of their parents were Western alumni.

“I like him because he’s nice, and my favorite color is red,” said Cora Smith, 7.

Her mom, Ryan Smith, said Big Red was a good choice for a children’s book.

“He always makes me and my husband laugh, and we’re grown-ups,” said Smith, who graduated from Western in 1997.

Julie Strohm said her 3-year-old daughter, Sydney, likes when Big Red picks her up and tries to eat her head.

“Big Red is just so fun and friendly looking,” said Strohm, whose husband, Jeff, is the new assistant basketball coach at Western.

The artists’ take on Big Red is similar to the dolls that can be purchased in the school bookstore, with the letters WKU printed across his chest.

Philip Earnhart joined the project as an illustrator, and he quickly brought on the third Earnhart brother, Stephan, to share in those duties.

They took turns drawing the various characters and scenes, “handing things back and forth” until they got the look they wanted, Philip Earnhart said.

The art has an almost unfinished look, with sketch marks left on the page and overlapping brush strokes. Stephan Earnhart said that was intentional, because kids like to draw and they could see the components of the work this way.

“We kind of wanted to show the structure of the work because you can trace it back to its original, the sketch,” he said.

Jack Wilson, 9, said he liked the art in the book and wanted to buy a copy.

“The pictures looked really good, all the color,” he said.

Last year, Allen began working with Western on the legal and trademark issues to create such a book.

Two years ago, Western filed a lawsuit against an Italian media company, Mediaset, that the university’s lawyer, Deborah Wilkins, said uses a character that is a copy of Big Red. The character, Gabbibo, hosts a television show. The show’s creator said in a 1991 magazine interview that he had copied Big Red, Wilkins said.

The lawsuit has not been resolved, though Wilkins said Western is hoping for a decision by early next year.

Spirit has licensed the use of Big Red for books and other merchandise, Tim Earnhart said, though he wouldn’t say what other products the company might sell. A percentage of the book’s sales will go to Western.

Sales of the book were good over the weekend, Allen said, though she wouldn’t give exact figures. She said both the university bookstore and the Barnes & Noble Booksellers on Campbell Lane had already placed a second order. The book is also available at Werner Lowe at Fairview Plaza.

If all goes well, the company will begin selling the related merchandise; Allen is already thinking about her second book. She is waiting to hear from readers through the book’s Web site, www.bigredspirit.com, before she starts, though.

“I would love to hear from people, what their thoughts are on this book as I start to work on the next book,” she said. “Are they learning what I hope that they’re learning. Are people interested in more?”