Perspective: Mascots Unmasked

"It was me, Flex and the Kixx Mad Dog ..."

Hooter, the cherry-feathered mascot of Temple University, is spinning another yarn.

"We were down at Penn's Landing last summer for this Y-100 promo thing. It was over 100 degrees out, though, so they told us to just walk around for five minutes. Instead, we got stuck judging this weird American Idol-type thing hosted by Dave Huddleston. We were outside for an hour judging these little kids singing Smash Mouth songs. I don't know why they had mascots judge, because we couldn't talk -- or write."

The win-win solution?

"I just gave every kid a 10."

Joe Williams, a junior at Temple, has lived a double life as Temple's beloved mascot for three years. He's donned the costume for countless athletic events and school functions.

"A lot of it is just wacky," Williams says. "It's just one of those things that I know I'll look back on in a number of years."

La Salle, Penn, Saint Joseph's, Temple and Villanova -- better known, collectively, as the Philadelphia Big 5 -- have engaged in college basketball's most unique intra-city rivalry for a half-century. Generations of fans have enjoyed the famously heated Palestra doubleheaders, along with the rivalries they foster.

But any city series devotee will tell you that the mascots are much more than familiar associations -- they're as much a part of each program's tradition as the name of the school itself. It's hard to imagine a Penn without its bespectacled Quaker, or a La Salle without its mustachioed Explorer. Could even the most devout Jesuit conjure a St. Joe's without its everlasting Hawk?

But the mascots, like the athletes they rally, are students. And every few years, a new underclassman assumes the Wildcat or Owl or Explorer costumes -- and these students come from all sorts of backgrounds and experiences.

The pair of juniors -- one in Wharton, the other in the College -- that platoon as the Penn Quaker, for instance, were season ticket holders as freshmen. Dissatisfied with the state of their school's mascot -- "We thought he was doing a pretty boring job," one says -- they decided to do something about it.

"One of our friends knew some players. They said that the current guy was a senior, they were finding somebody to replace him and they asked us if we wanted to do it. The kid who was doing it was really busy, so we took over in the middle of the season. My first time was the St. Joe's game."

Because the duties are split -- like they are at most schools -- the students rarely face a time conflict.

"We usually work it out between the two of us, who covers what," the Wharton student says. "There's always somebody there."

When he came to Temple in 2001, Williams never imagined he'd sport the revered Owl's costume.

"I was dating a girl on the cheerleading team freshman year, and she said, 'You should do this.' I didn't really take it seriously at first," Williams says. "But I started to enjoy it."

Williams first donned the Hooter outfit for smaller appearances -- like volleyball games or on-campus events, open houses or alumni functions. Soon, he was flapping at men's basketball and football games, developing what he calls his "mascot personality."

"Once you realize that no one knows who you are, you can just sort of relax and develop your own alternate personality," Williams says. "It actually does become that, at least for me. When you put that costume on, you stop being who you are. When it's on and I start walking, I can stroll up to cheerleaders and put an arm around them, or go up to guys and give them a hard time."

Several years ago, Temple added a second mascot for Hooter's company: Baby Owl. Benjamin Brooks, the senior-most member of the school's mascot corps, roams the hardwood as the diminutive crony -- a junior relative of Hooter.

"When I was applying to colleges, it was the one thing I always asked the admissions people about: 'What's your mascot, and how do I become it?'" says Brooks, a former high school mascot. "Once I figured out that Temple was the school I wanted to go to, I came to the mascot office [and] told them I wanted to do it."

After a brief interview, they told Brooks to show up at the first football game of the season. If he did a good enough job, the suit was his.

He's served as Baby Owl for the last three years. There's not much difference in playing the two Temple mascots, Brooks notes, but Baby Owl typically attends only football and men's basketball games.

"Hooter has more appearances, but Hooter gets a full scholarship," Brooks adds. "We get our books paid for, though, which is great."

Free textbooks aren't the only fringe benefits Brooks enjoys as Baby Owl. In his time on the job, he's had multiple brushes with celebrities -- including crooners Jessica Simpson, the Village People and The Monkees.

"I've met so many amazing people," Brooks says. "Most of them came to our football games, where they did halftime shows. Everybody wants to meet the mascot and take a picture with him."

For Steve Kettinger, becoming the Villanova Wildcat proved more arduous an undertaking.

Kettinger, a senior at the Main Line school, endured an intensive screening process.

"They posted tryouts in the school paper my sophomore year. There was a meeting with [Villanova Athletics Department] Media and Promotions. We had to do a skit and a personal interview. I just saw the opportunity and jumped at it."

The ad said to prepare a three- to five-minute skit.

"It could be anything," he recalls. "There were no limitations, besides the time."

So he got creative.

"I blended a bunch of songs together in a recording -- the school alma mater, the school fight song, Eye of the Tiger and Bust A Move. I had a bunch of props -- bunny hats, toys, I had a trombone in there. When it started, I wore a tutu and started doing ballet. When Eye of the Tiger came on, I lifted barbells like I was working out getting ready for the big game."

Kettinger stuffed as much school pride as he could into his skit, splicing in sound clips of the 1985 Villanova men's basketball team as they won the NCAA Championship.

For the finishing touch, Kettinger pulled deep into his bag of tricks.

"I borrowed the Hawk costume from St. Joe's Prep," Kettinger confesses, mentioning that his mother works at the Philadelphia high school. "At the end of the song, I beat up the Hawk."

Kettinger was then ushered to another room for a personal interview with the director of promotions and a then-current mascot.

"They asked why I came to Villanova, basic questions about the team, where I was from, what was my major," Kettinger explains.

As a final test, the committee ensures the applicant can mimic the "Wildcat Walk" to perfection. The goofy gait was second nature for Kettinger -- as an alumnus of nearby La Salle College High School, he'd watched Villanova athletics from the stands for years.

"There were 20 people that tried out," Kettinger says. "They only took two or three."

When pressed on his favorite moment in the costume, Kettinger can't narrow it down.

"There's too many," he says with a laugh. "My favorite events were the ones when you got to work with the actual professional mascots -- like the Phillie Phanatic. You can learn so much from them."

Every now and then, the local mascots have been known to convene for important mascot-related events. On April 27, 2003, a host of local icons assembled at Veterans Stadium for the Phillie Phanatic's birthday, celebrated during a Phillies-Giants afternoon game.

"Before the game, they put all of us in the football locker room," the Quaker remembers. "The Giants were taking batting practice in the tunnel and we saw Barry Bonds and Andres Galarraga. Galarraga came in and was playing with the mascot heads and everything."

The mascots were slated to come out en masse during the seventh inning and dance with the Phanatic atop the visitors' dugout. But the typically boisterous Vet crowd was more reserved than usual, as Kevin Millwood was six outs away from a no-hitter -- which he would ultimately complete.

"We didn't do it as long as they'd planned," Kettinger says, "because everybody was nervous and nobody wanted anything different or unusual happening" while the no-hitter was intact.

While their schools' athletes are busy toiling and conditioning over summer vacation, mascots similarly sharpen their skills -- with a summer camp.

The Penn Quaker was one of 25 mascots that attended the Universal Cheerleaders Association Cheerleading and Mascot Camp last summer at Rutgers University. The camp was three days long, and the attendees prepared skits and practiced using props.

The roll call reads like a "who's who" of big-time college mascots.

"Sebastian the Ibis from the University of Miami was there," the Quaker reports. "The UConn Husky was there, the Boston College Eagle and the Georgetown Hoya."

During camp, the mascots prepare skits to be performed for the cheerleaders on the last day.

"You meet a lot of people behind the mask," he adds. "It was a lot of fun."

As different as the students in the costume are -- in background, in experience, in personality -- they all emphasize the one thread that runs common among them.

"You have to have high energy," Brooks emphasizes. "Boy, girl, short, tall -- that really doesn't matter. You just have to be happy and energetic, and that will show through the costume. If you're showing a lot of energy, they'll like you and they'll laugh. You can't be low on energy."

The Penn Quaker echoes Baby Owl's sentiments.

"You have to be passionate about your school and its teams. We got involved by being big basketball fans," he says. "If you don't get excited when your team scores a touchdown or wins a big game, it's probably not for you."

Hooter perhaps sums it up best: "You have to have the same amount of energy as a basketball player does. They're working as hard as they can to win a game, but you're working just as hard to make the crowd laugh."

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