14 Most Famous Huskies in the World

While the most important husky in the world is always going to be the one that’s sleeping on the end of your bed, there’s no denying that huskies have made history for years.

Their unique beauty makes them the perfect models for TV and movies, while their incredible strength and intelligence has seen them involved in many high profile events.

Huskies are awesome — and the whole world knows it.

So, let’s have a look at 14 of the world’s most famous huskies.

Balto, Fritz and Togo

Three of the most famous huskies ever are the Balto, Fritz and Togo team, who lead the “Great Race of Mercy.”

In 1925, a Diphtheria outbreak had taken hold of a town called Nome in Alaska. In order to deliver some life-saving serum to the Nome folks in need, Balto the husky lead the expedition over 700 miles through blinding blizzards. A statue was erected in his honour in Central Park after the successful completion of the mission.

Fritz and Togo — half brothers — were also important figures in the race, and lead important sections of the expedition themselves.

It’s no surprise that Balto has become one of the world’s most popular husky names!

Charlie

We all know that Siberian huskies are strong, but Charlie took it to the next level in 1963.

During that year, he pulled a 3,142 lb sledge and was given the award of strongest dog alive. While your husky pup might not be able to manage quite that weight on their own, it’s fair to say that the incredible endurance and stamina of this breed never ceases to amaze.

The Eight Below Huskies

Eight Below was a 2006 adventure movie starring Paul Walker and Bruce Greenwood, which tracked a treacherous expedition to Antarctica with a pack of sled dogs, made up of Alaskan Malamutes and Siberian Huskies.

Human hubris and terrible weather conditions sees the team afflicted with hypothermia and frostbite, as well as other injuries. The dogs are the heroes, managing to lead the humans back to base and saving them from certain death.

Despite this, when the humans are extracted from Antarctica, the dogs are abandoned at base camp for 6 months until the protagonist can raise the necessary funds for a rescue expedition to go back and save them.

The dogs’ names are Maya, Old Jack, Shorty, Dewey, Truman, Shadow, Buck and Max.

Droopy

Another tale of a husky surviving through terrible conditions is that of Droopy, and his brave human rescuer, Mick Pawley.

It was the 70s, and Pawley and a companion were exploring Pourquois Pas — an island in Antarctica, south of Chile — with a pack of sled dogs, including Droopy. During the journey, two of the dogs accidentally slipped and fell into a crevasse in the ice and proceeded to start a fight with each other. Then Droopy dropped out of his harness and fell further, out of sight.

Fearing the worst, Pawley managed to pull the other dog to safety, before he descended 150 foot down into the crevasse himself to look for Droopy. He brought with him a pistol, in case Droopy’s injuries were too much.

Thankfully, Droopy had managed to preserve himself by spreading all four paws and straddling the crevasse. After abseiling down, Pawley had to untie himself and traverse across the crevasse to locate Droopy, before tying him back to his own rope and rock climbing back up. Thankfully, his companion was able to assist him from above.

Both happily survived.

Mukluk

Huskies are routinely used as mascots for college sports teams and professional expeditions. One of the most famous husky mascots is that of Mukluk, who was part of Project Iceworm in 1960.

This was a 1960 US Army project to secretly build a large network of mobile nuclear launch sites under Greenland during the Cold War, without the Danish finding out about it.

The project was eventually disbanded as it became clear that the unsteady conditions within the ice sheet would see the planned tunnels and station destroyed in a matter of years.

In order to distract the Danish, a cover for the project was created: the construction of Camp Century, a site to test construction techniques under Arctic conditions. A 150 person team was brought in to build the site, and they brought with them Mukluk as an unofficial mascot.

Mukluk has now been immortalised as a TY Beanie Baby collectible toy. It’s even got blue and green bi-eyes!