The crowd’s cheers echoed throughout Notre Dame’s King Hall September 25th as Thomas Dittmer was crowned Top Dawg. For the senior class, this annual pageant has always been a way to bring money in for Activity Week. For Thomas Dittmer, that was one of the reasons he competed in Top Dawg. 

“I did it mainly to have a lot of fun and raise some money for the senior class,” Dittmer said. 

There are three different categories in which the boys competed, consisting of sportswear, talent, and Q&A. For Dittmer’s talent, he brought along his younger brothers Max and Peter. The crowd was swooning for the three boys as they took the stage to sing The Jonas Brothers’ “Year 3000.” When asked about getting his brothers to execute the role, there wasn’t too much convincing. 

“At first they didn’t want to be in it, but then it took about a day of convincing and then they were on board and excited about it,” said Dittmer.

The opening of Top Dawg is led by a group dance performed by all the boys participating in the night’s festivities. The senior cheerleaders are the ones who came up with and taught this dance to all the boys. According to Dittmer, the dance was one of the things he wanted to get just right. 

“I was pretty nervous about making it fun and energetic and getting our dance right because we kind of threw it together last minute.”

Another thing Thomas was nervous about was the Q&A section of Top Dawg. The escorts picked a question that was in a large bag and handed the question to the emcee. 

“The question that she picked for me was a really good question about my family,” Dittmer said.  “’What does family mean to you?’ was my question and that was really easy for me to answer.” 

After the Q&A section came the crowing of the 2022 Top Dawg. Dittmer’s face lit up in shock and excitement as his name was called and he stepped forward to be crowned. A night that started as a fun senior activity to participate in with his class and two little brothers turned out to be even more special than he ever thought. 

“I did not think I was going to win at all. I was really surprised and really excited because I knew Max and Peter were going to feel a part of it too.”