Mascots are part of what makes watching sports so fun. Kids and adults alike love their favorite sports team’s mascot. They bring happiness to thousands of fans by handing out t-shirts, doing silly dances, and playing pranks on the opposing team to embarrass them. Every mascot is weird, but there are some that are especially strange. Here is a list of the weirdest mascots in collegiate and professional sports.
1. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers: Big Red
No one is really sure what Big Red is, but the Hilltoppers named it (him?) their mascot in 1979. There is nothing quite like Big Red anywhere on this planet, as he is just a big, fat, red blob. Big Red has been in several mascot competitions and was even on the All-American Mascot Team bought by Capital One, from 2002-2004. He has also appeared on multiple ESPN commercials, as well as the 25,000th SportsCenter. Most people would agree he is the one thing that stands out for Western Kentucky University Sports simply for being one of the weirdest mascots around.
2. Saint Louis: Billikens
If you are over the age of 90, then you may remember the Billiken as being a charm doll that was a huge craze all over the United States back in the early 19th century. The reason the Billikens was chosen as Saint Louis’s mascot is that John Bender, the early Saint Louis football coach, looked like the doll. His team of players started to call themselves ‘Bender’s Billikens’ and the name never got old, despite the charm dolls losing their massive popularity.
3. Oakland Athletics: Stomper
The Oakland Athletics are named so because of an athletic club popular in the late 19th century called ‘Athletic of Philadelphia’, which is where the team got its start. They are often called, “the A’s” because of the team’s trademark A. However, interestingly enough the team’s mascot is an elephant. The mascot came about because of an old manager for the New York Giants stating that the team was a “white elephant”, which they then adopted as their current mascot. By 1909 the A’s on the back of the Athletics’ sweaters turned into an elephant logo and by 1997 the mascot took its current form as ‘Stomper’. Stompers full name is Stomper Ele Phant and makes this list because he has no connection to his team name and is also enormous for a mascot. Additionally, Stomper is known to take on fans in a dance battle.
4. UC Santa Cruz: Banana Slug
The Banana Slug has been UC Santa Cruz’s official mascot since 1986. However, he was the school’s unofficial one long before that. Before the Banana Slug was accepted as the official mascot, the school’s athletic department fought to have a mascot that was more menacing, even going so far as painting a sea lion on the floor of its basketball court. However, this did not deter students from celebrating their beloved banana slug, and so the school was forced to adopt the Banana Slug as its official mascot.
5. Miami Heat: Burnie
Burnie is quite an interesting character that seems to have been thought up by a very imaginative person. He looks sort of like a flame with a basketball in the middle of its face for a nose. One interesting fact about Burnie that casts a bit of a dark shadow over the fun character was that he has previously been sued in federal court. He was taken to court in 1994 after he danced with a woman during a time out at a Peurto Rico exhibition game. The woman turned out to be the wife of a Federal Judge, who fell when she pulled away. Burnie was sued for $1 million for emotional distress, but it was settled for $50,000.