Sports' Craziest Mascots Explained

On first blush, sports mascots are anything but enigmatic—ridiculous, yes, but far from being something compelling enough to warrant digging a little deeper.

It's understandable. Mascots, like Fun Dip, are beyond absurd yet too ubiquitous and culturally ingrained in our consciousness to genuinely spark curiosity about the how and why. They just exist on another level—one we don't often question. 

But, this is a great reason to explore the history of the most awesome, hilariously weird—and sometimes just weird weird—sports mascots out there. You know, just in case they've been waiting for humanity to let its guard down.

Seriously though, the stories behind some of the most beloved and reviled mascots in sports often go unheard outside the circle of a team's fans or a school's alumni—when some truly deserve to be heard by all people who call themselves sports fans. 

Here are some of sports' craziest mascots explained.

Blue Blob

Associated Press

Team/University: Xavier University 

Mascot: Blue Blob 

Xavier is one of a number of universities that have two mascots: one serious, the other absurd. Known as the Musketeers since 1925, a big-headed lame-o called D’Artagnan is the guy who gets to lead the charge onto the court and carry the university flag.

In addition to being lame, D’Artagnan is also horrifying to little children, who are smart enough to know an unpredictable lunatic with an aggressive mustache and a sword is someone to be avoided at all costs. 

That’s why the Blue Blob was created by a spirit-squad coordinator in 1985, to appeal to children and ease them into sports in a more organic way. Ya know...rather than at sword-point.

Having to deal with D’Artagnan at such a young age is like those sadistic parents who “teach” their kids to swim by tossing them into water. And what’s more organic than the Blue Blob? If someone asked you to design a kid-friendly blob that is blue, it would probably look exactly like a less defined Cookie Monster, reportedly the inspiration for the Blue Blob.

Of course, we all know the Blue Blob doesn’t feed on cookies though. He feeds on Hall of Fame jackets. 

Demon Deacon

Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

Team/University: Wake Forest 

Mascot: Demon Deacons 

The Wake Forest Demon Deacon mascot is quite odd because he’s got a pretty intense name for just being some old dude in a top hat who is obviously way overdressed for a basketball game. The nickname far predates the actual mascot, which was the brainchild of a frat bro in 1941. According to the university website, the aforementioned frat bro accepted the challenge of creating and becoming a mascot as a dare from a fellow frat bro.

Personifying the spirit of some as obscure as a Demon Deacon isn’t easy. No wonder he failed. 

As the story goes, that frat bro led “the Deacons on the field against North Carolina. He was dressed in top hat, tails, and umbrella, riding the Carolina ram, and while his fraternity brothers roared with laughter at the sight of him, no one realized the Deacons would ever play again without their Demon Deacon—a joke was to become an institution.”

So if you’ve ever looked at Wake Forest’s weirdo mascot and thought, “Wow. That thing looks like a fraternity prank run amok!” you were absolutely right.  

K.C. Wolf

Orlin Wagner/Associated Press

Team/University: Kansas City Chiefs

Mascot: K.C. Wolf

On the surface, it doesn’t seem like the Chiefs' official mascot, K.C. Wolf, has much to do with the team—like how every NHL team has a mascot but most are completely random. Seriously, Minnesota Wild mascot Nordy's connection to the name is that he’s a WILD animal. Sorry, but that’s just lazy. WILD is the only parameter, and the best you can do is a cartoon bear that looks like it was colored by a toddler? Anyway. 

K.C. Wolf was created in 1989, named for a particularly intense group of Chiefs fans known as the “Wolfpack.” As the “Director of Shenanigans,” K.C. has been a very visible presence at Arrowhead Stadium for more than two decades now, having been played by Dan Meers since his inception. In 2006 K.C. was among the inaugural class inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame, which is apparently something that exists! 

Lafitte the Instigator

Credit: Wikipedia

Team/University: University of New Orleans

Mascot: Lafitte the Instigator 

I’m going to be straight-up with you here. I didn’t find much of an explanation on this one. It seems the more I read about the University of New Orleans Privateers, the less I know. I’m not even sure how much anyone knows, since schools with the mascot rely on the dictionary to define Privateer as “a sailor aboard a ship (a 'privateer ship'), who is licensed to protect the ship they are on to prevent enemy attacks."

A human sailor, one would imagine. 

Well, 1983 was UNO’s 25th anniversary of existence, and it used the occasion to finally pull the trigger on a mascot. Instead of going with something obvious like Maritime College’s Privateer Pete, it decided to go in a completely different direction—a direction that was so far outside the box the Privateers can’t even see the box anymore.

Lafitte the Instigator is an “anthropomorphized alligator” who dresses like a pirate but is obviously just an alligator. Hopefully booze was involved. 

That’s what happens when you do stuff like this in-house, which they did. Then there’s nobody around capable of giving critical feedback. 

Stanford Tree

USA TODAY Sports

Team/University: Stanford University 

Mascot: That Tree 

Perhaps the only thing crazier than the Stanford Tree is how the Tree came to be. The university’s mascot was actually the “Indians” from 1930-72 but was deemed offensive and discarded with the support of the students. “Cardinal” (the color, not the bird) was then adopted, with the tree from the school’s logo beating out a “steaming manhole and a giant french fry” in a 1975 contest, as noted by Jim Weber of Yahoo Sports.

Honestly, forgoing the manhole and the giant french fry seems like a real missed opportunity. If only we had some of the logo designs that were submitted to help paint a more accurate picture. The Tree is cool too though. 

Though present as part of the marching band at all sporting events, the Tree isn’t Stanford’s official mascot—it doesn't have one. The Tree, which is decided each year via an elaborate competition, doesn’t even have an official costume. In addition to the honor of being named Tree, the winner of the contest is also asked to put his or her own spin on the costume—that’s why it comes in so many different shades of crazy. 

WuShock

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Team/University: Wichita State

Mascot: Shockers 

How Wichita State came to be known as the Shockers is not nearly as…shocking…as one may imagine upon seeing its mascot, WuShock, for the first time. After all, it’s not every day you see what appears to be a psychotic bundle of wheat rocking a bad turtleneck (Sprockets style) and an even worse toupee.

I know I’m not the only one who has been haunted by his menacing grin since the 2013 NCAA tournament. But I digress. 

According to the university's official website, the name “Wheat Shockers” was actually created by a football “manager” for a poster to advertise an upcoming game, and it stemmed from most of the team's players paying for school harvesting (or shocking) wheat over the summer.

That was back in 1904, when every commute was uphill both ways. In 1948 a fraternity on campus held a a design contest, looking for a “mascot who gave a tough impression…with a serious, no-nonsense scowl.”

WuShock was born on paper then, but eight years later a cheerleader helped bring him to life with a costume that was 10 times more horrifying than the one we know today. 

Crazy Crab

Getty Images

Team/University: San Francisco Giants

Mascot: Crazy Crab 

According to the Giants' website, the notoriously polarizing Crazy Crab was the organization’s way of answering the “mascot craze” that hit MLB in the late '70s. He was an “anti-mascot” designed specifically to break with convention and mock “traditional” mascots. They took the joke a little too far though, publicly encouraging fans to abuse the poor crustacean.

By 1984 Crazy Crab was not longer just on the receiving end of verbal taunts from fans; they had taken to physically accosting him and hurling food and beverages at him. Even the players were getting in on the action. Apparently they pegged him with bags of resin so forcefully and often that he was absolutely terrified of them.

Before taking the field on the last day of that 96-loss season in ’84, the man inside the crab reportedly said to a Giants executive, “I hope there’s nobody up there with a gun.” In a 2009 interview with the San Francisco Gate, Pat Gallagher, the PR bro who came up with Crazy Crab back in the day, called the whole thing a “multimillion-dollar mistake.”

Steely McBeam

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Team/University: Pittsburgh Steelers

Mascot: Steely McBeam 

You know how sometimes something appears horribly stupid on the surface, but then you think that maybe there’s a story behind it that somehow makes it better or more important, at least to interested parties? Well, that is not the case with Steelers mascot Steely McBeam.

In fact, there isn’t more than meets the eye with this guy; there’s actually less. In August 2007 the team debuted the terrifying and excessively angular mascot during training camp at Saint Vincent College. And the only thing worse than the who and the what was the why?!?! 

According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, making the mascot a steel worker was supposed to be an homage to Pittsburgh’s industrial history. Its creators definitely didn’t mean for it to be a grotesque caricature of glory days that weren’t nearly as glorious as people tend to remember.

Then there’s the name—Steely McBeam. Apparently it was selected via a contest that received over 70,000 submissions! The woman picked “Steely” because of…steel. She picked Beam because of beams…of steel. And she added the “Mc” because the Rooney family is Irish. Bing bang boom!

Steely McBeam is to mascots what Kenny Bania is to comedy. 

Sammy the Slug

Credit: YouTube

Team/University: University of California, Santa Cruz 

Mascot: Banana Slugs 

UC Santa Cruz’s mascot, Sammy the Slug, is a living, breathing embodiment of the epic gap in age and priorities that often exist between a university’s administration and its students. Athletics have never been the top priority at UCSC, as evidenced by the students' early embracement of the Banana Slug as their unofficial mascot—“their response to fierce athletic competition fostered at most American universities,” per UCSC's website.

Former chancellor Robert Sinsheimer, however, was not fond of the mascot nor the statement it made and in 1980 acted unilaterally, changing the mascot to the Sea Lions on a Division III NCAA application. He straight up didn’t like banana slugs and didn’t understand why a bunch of kids were so passionately devoted to them.

In what must have been a very frustrating and confusing five years for Sinsheimer, he finally cried uncle and let the damn kids have their damn Banana Slugs after a campus-wide vote showed the measure had overwhelming support.

Upon his retirement in in 1987, Sinsheimer seemed to have come to terms with the drama:

"

The students have the greatest interest in the mascot, so I agreed to accept their choice, which was overwhelmingly a banana slug. I am fine with that. It is amusing, and the artists have drafted it into a rather fetching icon.

"

And he learned a valuable lesson about picking your battles. 

Billiken

Mel Evans/Associated Press

Team/University: Saint Louis University 

Mascot: Billiken 

Unless you’re a very serious college hoops fan with moderate interest/enthusiasm for mascots, right now you’re probably asking yourself: What the heck is a Billiken? Well! The one thing that can be said for Saint Louis is that it's much better at anticipating our questions than it is at selecting mascots.

The university issues official press releases pretty much every season (the most recent of which is just days old) that run down the creature’s origin and history, all the while attempting to convince the public it’s way more awesome than it actually is. 

Basically Billiken is the dopey dream of an art teacher—literally, this thing came to her in a dream. It’s a mythical elf-like figure that supposedly brings good luck and “represents things as they ought to be.” Whatever that means. The university doesn’t quite have its story down about how it got hooked up with what essentially was a commercial logo, but it does provide several widely varied versions of what could’ve happened. Kinda like the end of Clue. 

The only thing the university seems to know for sure is its mascot needs a lot of explaining, which would be better if it had an actual explanation.

Burnie

Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

Team/University: Miami Heat

Mascot: Burnie 

The Heat’s mascot, Burnie, has long been one of my favorites. He’s everything a mascot should be—crazy, creepy and completely out of control. Unfortunately there isn’t much to find about the real Burnie online, which is why I personally contacted the team to inquire.

And the team was surprisingly receptive and helpful to my crazy-person inquiry! Turns out Burnie is the physical personification of a ball of fire, so it’s not just a clever name. 

He’s been with Miami since its inaugural in 1988-89 and is the fiery freakshow creation of its internal marketing department. You may have noticed that Burnie doesn’t have a nose or mouth—that’s intentional!

First of all, mascots don’t talk, so he doesn’t need a mouth. And his nose has been replaced by an awkwardly sized basketball as a way to identify him with the sport—though that doesn’t stop him from skydiving, impersonating Beyonce or attempting to hold Dwyane Wade hostage. 

Oh! Back in 2002 Wes Lockard, the man inside the monster, inexplicably made $100,000 a year for his mascot work in Miami. Yeah. That happened. It’s crazy because in some ways we still know nothing about Burnie. In other ways, we know far too much. 

Otto the Orange

USA TODAY Sports

Team/University: Syracuse University 

Mascot: Otto The Orange 

Syracuse definitely took the scenic route to its current mascot. According to the university’s website, its first mascot was Vita the Goat in the 1920s. Born from an impressively elaborate hoax, the Saltine Warrior, which apparently was a fictional Native American character named Big Chief Bill Orange, was adopted in the '30s and stuck around until a Native American student protest in 1978.

Less offensive but substantially dumber failed mascot attempts that followed included a Roman gladiator type, “Egnaro the Troll, a Superman-like figure, and a man in an orange tuxedo.” Considering impressive terribleness of the failed mascots, the fact that Syracuse settled on a male cheerleader-designed “Orange ‘with appeal’” makes more sense.

That plush saggy orange with awkwardly protruding limbs, ill-fitting ball cap and cold-dead stare has been around in one form or another since 1980, but Otto wasn’t named or officially adopted till the mid-'90s. Syracuse’s chancellor at the time put together an 18-member committee of faculty and staff to decide on the mascot—narrowed down to a wolf, lion or creepy orange fur ball.

Unmoved by the national ridicule The Orange had received—SI described it as a “juiced-up, bumbling citrus fruit from which two legs protrude,” according to the university's website—the committee decided to keep it real.

Like really real. Like really really real…and orange…mostly orange. 

Big Red

BRADLEY LEEB/Associated Press

Team/University: Western Kentucky 

Mascot: Big Red 

First of all, Western Kentucky’s nickname is the “Hilltoppers,” which isn’t near as mysterious as people asking questions on the interwebs make it out to be. They’re the Hilltoppers because the campus sits atop a hill. Seriously.

WKU’s mascot was dreamt up in 1979 by Ralph Carey, a man with a very interesting vision—he considers Big Red to be the perfect representation of the spirit and very being of Western Kentucky. Carey didn’t want the mascot to be an animal, but more important was avoiding hillbilly stereotypes.

So naturally he decided on a Grimace-esque muppet rocking a WKU sweater. Or is it just a patch? Either way, Carey succeeded. Big Red would never be mistaken for an animal and is far too obscure to associate with common stereotypes.

Having starred in his own This is SportsCenter commercial, it’s safe to say this mascot has made it. And you know what they say about imitation being the most sincere form of flattery? Well, in 2000 WKU filed a lawsuit against the creator of an Italian mascot called Gabibbo, who was “created” in 1990 and looks exactly like Big Red. Or how Big Red would look if he had a dirtbag mustache and an extensive wardrobe.

The suit wasn’t successful, but the Antonio Ricci was quoted, per Western Kentucky's official website, as “saying he got the idea for Gabibbo from a photo of Big Red.”

Phillie Phanatic

USA TODAY Sports

Team/University: Philadelphia Phillies

Mascot: Phillie Phanatic 

Before it became the headline-generator wreaker of havoc known affectionately as “The Most-Sued Mascot,” per Time, the Phillie Phanatic was just a glint in the eye of ownership desperate for something family-friendly to distract parents and children from the reality that they could be intentionally vomited on at any time.

To achieve that aesthetic, in the late '70s the team employed a firm that had designed Muppets. And the design team that concocted the Phanatic sure did its job—it’s hard to perfectly encapsulate a city with a muppet, but the team succeeded. 

In Philly, family friendly means a 300-pound (all fat, no muscle) cheesesteak-inhaling monster with a 90-inch waist, bright green fur, clumsy feet, weird circular beak, extra-long curled up tongue and a “slight” case of body odor.

But hey, at least he likes reading. According to a piece in the Delaware County Daily Times, an intern named Dave Raymond was the first fan to don the Phanatic costume back in 1978 and the only instruction he received that day was, “Have fun! …. G-rated, G-RATED fun.” 

The times they are a-changin’. Admit it...you're worried about that baby in the photo!