Mascot Hall of Fame Breaks Ground In Indiana, Announces 2017 Ballot
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[quote]Do you prefer Chicago's Benny the Bull or Boston's Wally the Green Monster? The deviousness of Arizona State's Sparky the Sun Devil or the goofiness of South Carolina's Cocky? Or maybe you're more traditional, and like Penn State's Nittany Lion. If you're offbeat, go for Stanford's Tree.
The Mascot Hall of Fame will be built in Whiting, a city along Lake Michigan best known for its oil refinery and its Pierogi Fest — a weekend event in July that celebrates Polish dumplings. More than 250,000 people take part in pierogi eating contests, pierogi tosses and polkas.
David Raymond, the original Phillie Phanatic and the hall's founder, said the city 20 miles southeast of Chicago is the perfect site for two reasons: It was willing to put up $7 million for the building and its 5,000 residents embrace quirky.
"Their brand is the little wacky city that could, so they embrace the silliness of this project," Raymond said.
Mayor Joseph Stahura said the hall is being financed through tax increment financing and is part of a plan to try to establish the city as one- or two-day tourist destination. A sustainability study says the hall should draw 50,000 visitors a year, he said.
The idea for the hall was sparked by a 2003 incident of mascot abuse. Sports fans nationwide were shocked when Pittsburgh first baseman Randall Simon used a bat to fell one of the four Racing Sausages during a Milwaukee Brewers game in the bop heard round the world.
Simon, who said he did not deliberately try to knock down the Italian sausage, was cited for disorderly conduct.
"We as a group in our office said we really should take advantage of this, have some fun with it, but also promote the fact that mascots sometimes aren't getting the respect they deserve," Raymond said.
That led to the creation of a mascot bill of rights , a mascot march in Philadelphia and the creation of the online hall. The inaugural class of the Phillie Phanatic, the Famous Chicken (aka the San Diego Chicken) and the Phoenix Gorilla was inducted in 2005.
To date, 10 pro and seven collegiate mascots have been inducted. The pro honorees include Mr. Met, KC Wolf of the Kansas City Chiefs and Rocky of the Denver Nuggets. The college legends include Ohio State's Brutus Buckeye, Wisconsin's Bucky the Badger and Tennessee's Smokey.
Not all mascots are eligible for the hall, just the fully costumed kind. Raymond said the hall organizers may recognize human and animal mascots eventually in some way. Members of the hall are selected through voting by the public online, lifetime hall voting members (comes with a $50 donation) and an executive committee.[/quote]
[url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7c5d4c6a1dfe42b7a451d27533495dad/mascot-hall-fame-gives-furry-cheerleaders-spotlight]AP[/url]
Photos of the mock up are on the official [url=http://mascothalloffame.com/]website[/url], along with the ballot for this year. They are Tommy Hawk of the Chicago Blackhawks, Benny the Bull of the Chicago Bulls, Sluggerrr of the Kansas City Royals, Stuff of the Orlando Magic, Penn State Nittany Lion, and Hairy Dawg of the University of Georgia.
Neato.
Benny the Bull is a first ballot HOFamer easily
Surprised they didn't have any Indiana mascots like Boomer or the Boilermaker
Benny the Bull or riot
nothing but sub-par fursuits
get the filly fernetic in there by gum
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