We Love Mascots

Racing sausages. 9/20/2024 dwm

 It's National Mascot Day, and according to the good people at nationaltoday.com mascots have been around since the late 19th century!

November 11, 1882, a player dressed in a costume during a football (soccer) game in England. 

It happened a year later in the United States, when a boy working for the team was thought to bring the team good luck (humans can be mascots, ie, the leprechaun at Notre Dame).

Wisconsin has quite a few mascots - the Milwaukee Brewers have at least seven - while the Badgers and Bucks go with the more traditional one mascot.

Bernie Brewer and Barrelman. 4/23/2023 dwm

 Bernie Brewer was originally a human mascot, as a man dressed in lederhosen who watched the game from a chalet in the outfield bleachers. When Milwaukee hit a home run, Bernie would slide down into an over-sized mug of beer (it looked like a mug, no actual beer was ruined) that would release balloons.

 Eventually Bernie was replaced with a costume of an oversized, mustachioed fellow. He hangs out in the chalet during the home half of each inning. Barrelman was part of the Brewers logo in the 1970s but I don't recall anyone dressing in barrel suit, this is a more recent addition to the roster.

 The five racing sausages first raced live during a game June 27, 1993. They've had people and occasionally celebrities for the races. The six times I ran in the Racing Sausages 5K, I was very impressed to see people run 3.1 miles inside a sausage costume.

Bucky on skates. 2/13/2016 dwm

I've had a few opportunities to dress up as a mascot. The first time was during my time at Lutheran High School for an Easter Egg roll, when I put on an Easter rabbit costume. It was fun but also difficult because it is hard to see and you can't break character by speaking.

The other two times was at the Indianapolis Zoo, where they had volunteers dress like an animal and walk around so people could take pictures and/or get hugs. Two things I learned from that experience: 1. I should have done this during high school and college because it was amazing to see how many young women want to hug a mascot! 2. If you are wearing  a lion mascot, don't face actual animals. A security man at the Zoo warned me to go someplace else because the goats were upset with a lion nearby. 

The professional basketball team in Milwaukee has used Bango as their mascot since the early 1970s, but the elaborate costume came along in the 1990s (I believe). It takes athletes to put on costumes and dunk a basketball. 

11/20/2012 dwm

 Bucky Badger is the biggest mascot celebrity in Wisconsin. He is part of the band, the cheer squad, and represents the school in almost every function there is - he is the embodiment of the University of Wisconsin.

 It's worth noting that the most successful and prominent athletic team, the Green Bay Packers, don't have a mascot. There were aborted efforts through the years, but the Packers are so popular, they don't need to have someone wear green and gold felt on autumn Sunday afternoons.

 Among the most famous team mascots, I'd say they are probably the San Diego Chicken, which was never 'owned' by the team it was most associated with, the Padres. Eventually, the guy in the suit couldn't be the chicken anymore. 

 The other is the Philly Fanatic who is the mascot for Philadelphia Phillies. He drives his own ATV and gets away with all manner of antics.

 And that's just in sports, mascots are in lots of places, including Sesame Street and at the restaurant with those golden arches. If that's not enough, a medical company has an animated mascot that looks like the small package you'd use to return a sample to the company.

What else can you say, other than mascots rule.

Me and the Brat. 7/26/2014

Above I'm taking a picture of a runner with Bernie Brewer

7/15/2017