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Come Fan with UsThursday, June 25, 2026

DePaul wants you to ‘Fear the D’...or something

Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports

In honor of the inaugural “National Blue Demon Day,” a group of students showed up to DePaul’s Feb. 2 home game against Notre Dame wearing shirts with the slogan “Fear the D.” It’s a saying that could literally read as “fear the Demons,” or “fear the DePaul”...or “fear the dick.”

The third interpretation caught a few of the higher-ups by surprise, leading to a exposé/explanation from the university’s student newspaper on Monday.

A day after the shirts were given out at the game, a student posted a picture to the funny section of Reddit.com. The picture under the title “I’m not sure DePaul University understood the second meaning of this...” generated 1737 “up votes,” the Reddit equivalent of a “like.”

For many, “Fear the D” is not just a reference to DePaul’s beloved Blue Demon mascot. In fact, it is an innuendo for “fear the” penis.

“Either DePaul University spent their Christmas break growing a sense of humor, or somebody made a big mistake,” said Murphy Row, who wrote an article in response to the Reddit post on Cosbysweaters.com. “DePaul is an institution of higher learning and there is a lesson here. When the 21-year-old intern giggles at a suggestion for a slogan, take a minute to ask the intern why he or she is laughing before you print it on a t-shirt and hand it to a stadium full of students.”

Ok, but what isn’t an innuendo for penis these days. Embracing the filth is basically the only thing an institution that has D at the front of both its university and nickname can do.

The last time DePaul didn’t finish in last place in the Big East was 2008. I think the best move here might be to play ignorant and allow something, anything, that generates a modicum of excitement around the basketball program to persist.

#FearTheD #NotInLastPlace

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