{"id":132498,"date":"2026-01-14T01:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/132498\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T01:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T01:46:10","slug":"he-created-the-iconic-fresno-state-bulldog-at-nearly-95-hes-still-making-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/132498\/","title":{"rendered":"He created the iconic Fresno State Bulldog. At nearly 95, he\u2019s still making art."},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is produced from an episode of KVPR\u2019s Central Valley Daily podcast.\u00a0Listen to all episodes here, and wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>. Central Valley Daily is supported by the Central Valley Journalism Collaborative. If you have a story idea, email\u00a0podcast@kvpr.org<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FRESNO, Calif. – The growling blue and red Fresno State Bulldog is one of the most recognizable logos in the Central Valley.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been stamped on shirts, helmets, and buildings for decades. But how much is known about how \u2013 and by whom \u2013 it was created?<\/p>\n

KVPR recently interviewed the original artist, Joseph G. Garcia, who drew up the famous logo in 1981. Garcia told KVPR\u2019s Central Valley Daily podcast<\/a> that despite one of his drawings becoming the signature look for Fresno State, he doesn\u2019t know what ultimately pushed him to become an artist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that I just had since a child. Nobody ever says that you\u2019re good enough to be an artist or whatever. I just do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of Garcia\u2019s work is even found inside the KVPR building \u2013 mainly because his son works at the station. Joe Garcia Jr. is KVPR\u2019s development director.<\/p>\n

Despite this claim to local artistic fame, the older Garcia says he largely stays quiet and humble. But it was worth understanding a little more of the history behind his work as he approaches 95 years old.<\/p>\n

Garcia says he came to draw up the Bulldog when he became friends with Russ Sloan \u2013 who was Fresno State\u2019s athletic director in the early 1980s \u2013 and Sloan asked Garcia to design a new logo to present to the Bulldog Foundation\u2019s board.<\/p>\n

A rough draft came together in just a couple of days, Garcia said. Not long after, the final version was approved unanimously.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/p>\n

This is the original logo that Garcia came up with and it is hanging up in his house.<\/p>\n

The bulldog used by Fresno State today still closely resembles Garcia\u2019s original design. Today it\u2019s found up and down the Valley and its meaning lives in the minds and hearts of the thousands of students and faculty \u2014 or family of those students and faculty \u2014 who have ever had a connection to Fresno State.<\/p>\n

But the Bulldog wasn’t the end of Garcia’s artistic career.<\/p>\n

When the Save Mart Center was being built, he was asked to turn his illustrated Bulldog into a physical sculpture. That sculpture was later enlarged, cast in bronze, and placed at the arena\u2019s entrance, where it still sits today.<\/p>\n

Beyond logos, drawing, and sculpting, Garcia also writes and paints. His artwork ranges from abstract pieces to fine art to cartooning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have a style,\u201d Garcia admitted to KVPR. \u201cIf I did, people could see a painting of mine and say I know who did that, but I don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of his written pieces of work includes \u201cPrelude to Fresno.\u201d It tells the story of some of the early settlers in the Fresno area.<\/p>\n

Garcia says he creates most of his work for himself. Still, from time to time, they go on display for countless people to see. He also created the \u201cJohnny Quik Food Store\u201d<\/a> logo which is used for the Fresno area convenience store chain.<\/p>\n

Garcia said, at nearly 95, being an artist \u201cjust happens to be something that I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is produced from an episode of KVPR\u2019s Central Valley Daily podcast.\u00a0Listen to all episodes here, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132499,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[55796,512,37810,112,114,113,742,67877,67878,67879,67880,67881,33897],"class_list":{"0":"post-132498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-bulldog","9":"tag-central-valley","10":"tag-central-valley-daily","11":"tag-fresno","12":"tag-fresno-headlines","13":"tag-fresno-news","14":"tag-fresno-state","15":"tag-fresno-state-bulldog","16":"tag-joe-garcia","17":"tag-johnny-quik","18":"tag-johnny-quik-food-store","19":"tag-joseph-g-garcia","20":"tag-kvpr"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}