Hello fellow mascot enthusiasts! Thank you very much for your continued support for Mascot Blog. I know most of you are waiting on the edge of your seats for my first entry. Your patience will be rewarded. I wanted to provide you with a small entry today profiling my favorite team's mascots. I will rank the mascots in terms of the worst to the very best. I am still trying to figure out where I want to go with this blog. There are endless possibilities and I thank you all for being with me from the very beginning. Remember to follow the twitter account (twitter.com/mascotblog)! Here we go!
I consider myself to be a fan of several sports teams. These teams include Nebraska Huskers, Creighton Bluejays, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Wild, Kansas City Chiefs, and the Omaha Lancers. Each of these teams has a mascot, one of the teams has two mascots. The ranking from worst to first:
6. Billy Bluejay
I do not have a big problem with Billy, it is just that he is missing something. Billy is a lot like the Creighton basketball program. Before he got big and moved into a new shiny cage in the Qwest Center Omaha he was great. Back when Creighton would make NCAA tournament games, and win a few of them, Billy was very entertaining. Back when Creighton played in a half full Civic Auditorium Billy had the luxury of doing whatever he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it. Billy's best moments were when he would sled down the Civic's deserted upper bowl stairs. Now Billy is lame and just walks around and pats kids on the head. Weak.
5. Herbie Husker / Lil Red
Do not get me wrong, Lil Red is hilarious. He has won several awards such as the 1999 National Championship for Mascot of the Year and in 2007 he was introduced into the Mascot Hall of Fame (something I did not know about, but will certainly blog about in the future). My problem with this duo is Herbie. In the past there have been some great Herbie Huskers. That is the problem, he keeps changing. Go back to the roided up Herbie with the blond mullet and the jersey on. It is my belief that mascots should wear jerseys for the team they represent. Herbie wears a lame polo, hence why they are so low on my list.
4. Nordy (Minnesota Wild)
I do not know much about Nordy. From everything I have read he is a great mascot. His biography speaks for itself: "Nordy. Nordy hails from way up yonder and is a lifelong resident of The State of Hockey. Born in Eveleth, Minnesota, he was raised with a stick and a pair of blades and cut his teeth on the ponds and lakes throughout the Iron Range." He also has a mullet and I have seen pictures on the internet of him brawling with various mascots on the ice. I can get behind a mascot like Nordy.
3. KC Wolf (Kansas City Chiefs)
If you live in the Kansas City Chiefs market for TV games you have seen this hilarious mascot before. You can usually find him under the goalposts after the opponent scores going crazy for them to miss the usually meaningless extra point. When the kicker makes the point he throws a fit. I also enjoy a mascot that makes no sense at all. The wolf is just that. I cannot find any sort of connection between native americans and a wolf. That is why he is great. Keep it up Wolf because you are the only thing worth watching during Chiefs games.
2. TC Bear
TC is the mascot for the Minnesota Twins. Mascots in baseball are extremely important. Baseball is a slow sport and during games there are numerous moments where there is no action on the field. During these times it is vital that the fans stay interested in the games. I have not been to a Twins game in a few years, but what I do remember is laughing at TC the entire time. The highlight for TC is before the game and after a Twins win, when TC rides out onto the field on a four wheeler holding up a Twins flag. He usually is flying around on the field with no regard for his safety or the safety of anyone else. I doubt he will be allowed to do this at Target Field on the grass, but if I know TC, and I do know TC, he will find away to scare the hell out of players, fans, and umpires alike.
1. Lancers Chicken
The Chicken meets every requirement I have for a mascot. He is a chicken that represents the Lancers. There is no connection there at all. He is terrible looking, but wears a jersey. He entertains the crowd between periods. To quote a fellow Lancers fan at a recent game, "I have to use the bathroom but I do not know when to go. I don't want to go during the game because I do not want to miss a fight. I can't go during intermission because I do not want to miss the chicken." He entertains the crowd by playing catch with a football with fans in the seats. If you throw a bad pass he will stare you down and humiliate you in front of the thousands of Lancer fans in attendance. He skates as fast as he can and dives, driving his body into the boards, the goal, the Zamboni, whatever will cause a hard and painful crash, the Chicken will launch himself into it.
Thanks for reading my first blog entry. From here, I do not know where this blog will go. I do have a few plans that I will announce later. If you have any ideas or anything you would like me to blog about please leave a comment or tweet me about it!
