04/25/24
August 05, 2003
In a fowl mood? Let Harry the Hawk give you a lift. Im 72, furry and am looking for shenanigans.: This post is SFW. An interesting (if short) look behind the scenes, or behind the massive noggins of mascots. Who'd have thought mascots were so lonely? Anyone have a favorite fan/mascot moment?
my favorite mascot moment would be when I was 14 and stepped on the Syracuse Crunch mascot's cape. It sort of pulled him back by the neck and he twisted till it came off, then chased me around the arena, and tried to playfully beat on me. I wasn't having that so I popped him in the face. :D This was back before they changed their logo to some odd gorilla thing, and it was just a guy in armor and a cape. I don't really think he felt my punch, but he did exaggerate pain and let me go. I think he was probably embarassed. This is somewhat less impressive than Tucker Max attacking a mascot while on the ice at a game, but I was only 14, so I'm pretty proud of my fight.
posted by Bernreuther at 01:25 PM on August 05, 2003
About five years ago the guy who wore the Fresno State mascot (A bulldog names 'Timeout') was also a sprinter on the track team. He was a great athlete who would do full backflips in costume. One day he shows up at a meet and runs the 200 meters in the costume in 23.2. The look on the faces of the two guys he beat was priceless.
posted by kloeprich at 02:13 PM on August 05, 2003
Ok, I don't know who Tucker Max is, but that was fucking hilarious. My best guy-in-a-big-smelly-suit moment: My beloved Southern Illinois Salukis were squaring off with the Illinois State Redbirds when at halftime, the two mascots squared off in a contest of H-O-R-S-E. This led to some playful jostling and the Redbird scored a knockdown, then posed on the floor for the crowd. While he was lying there, however, the Dawg crept up behind him and lifted a leg, obviously pantomiming pissing on the Bird. The crowd went nuts, and I got a lovely picture of it. BTW, my gf at the time was petrified of mascots. We were both in the pep band (insert geek joke here), and she would literally quake when the Dawg would walk by us in the tunnel. Anyone else ever seen that?
posted by wfrazerjr at 02:13 PM on August 05, 2003
I've always preferred unofficial mascots to the official ones. You know, the rabid fans that attend every home game and seem like part of the team. I especially prefer the ones that stand alone (as opposed to big groups of frat boys doing something stupid). The University of Tulsa men's basketball program has two unrelated unofficial mascots. First there's the Coach, an older (maybe upper 50s nowadays) gentleman that sits in the student section at the end of the court and constantly stands up, pacing the sidelines, and hollers at the players and the refs just like a real coach. The second is Mad Dog, a very big, tough, marine-looking black man that barks rather loudly at various times throughout the game. They've both been there for at least eight or so years if not much longer. And they're a hell of a lot cooler than the Golden Hurricane (whatever the hell that is anyways).
posted by Ufez Jones at 02:40 PM on August 05, 2003
yeah, unofficial mascots are cool. Cornell hockey has the cowbell guy and occasionally a giant chicken. BU has Sasquatch, a really fat hairy guy with no shirt. OK, nevermind, that's just not cool at all.
posted by Bernreuther at 05:57 PM on August 05, 2003
We need more cowbell baby!
posted by lilnemo at 06:06 PM on August 05, 2003
The cheerleaders at Wisconsin, like at just about every other school, always hijack the opponent's mascot during games at Camp Randall and proceed to pile on him and pretend to beat him up. At one point in the late '90s, they evidently got a little too excited and actually broke the leg of the guy inside Purdue's Boiler Pete costume. Now, I hate Boiler Pete almost as much as Sparty the Spartan, but that was a little uncalled for. The poor kid struggled up one of the ramps before collapsing just out of site, proving that the guys inside these costumes take their jobs very seriously.