Sometimes, the Internet Tendency goes above and beyond, capturing both truth and wit.
ElectricRocket's Journal
ElectricRocket Rocks It Electric
Sometimes, the Internet Tendency goes above and beyond, capturing both truth and wit.
That brings back fond memories of my days as Huddles, mascot for The Cincinnati Bengals
I was the Easter Bunny at Lenox Square. No sports teams were involved, though that would have been interesting.
Do they really have a mascot named Huddles? That’s the worst name ever. No — Puddles would be the worst name. Huddles is bad though.
Huddles! I get it! I only had to read it three times.
I really relate to that article.
They did indeed, although no longer. I believe I was the last Huddles. I didn’t think it was anything special when I was doing it, but now I look back on it and am vastly entertained.
Um… is that true?
I had a Ben Gal as a middle school teacher. I think our class went through puberty just a wee bit faster than the others.
It’s absolutely true. I was Huddles the Tiger for the 1988-1989 season when the Bengals went to the Super Bowl against the 49ers.
Here’s how I got the job:
My uncle was having lunch with a friend who worked in the Bengals front office just a few days before the season began. When he walked in there was some consternation going on because they guy they hired to be Huddles had just left — he turned out to be far too big for the costume. They needed someone small and they needed that someone fast. My uncle said, “My niece is pretty small. Want me to call her?” And that was that. I didn’t know the first thing about football and was utterly unimpressed. I used to prowl around the offices — which were always wide open — trying on Super Bowl rings and looking out windows onto the field. I even took the occasional nap on Paul Brown’s couch.
And how many “things people don’t know about me” memes did we have to have to learn this about you?
That’s absolutely fascinating.
Especially in light of my friend from high school, Steve, who was also small, and would have dearly loved to have been Huddles. He was our high school mascot, the mascot for University of Miami, and eventually for some team up in Chicago. He went to mascot training camps and everything.
It’s all about having the right connections.
It worked out in the end. He’s now a successful writer for You Don’t Know Jack and Spongebob Squarepants kids books, so his career is sufficiently silly for him.
Steve would have deserved the job so much more than I did. All I ever did was wander around the sides of the field high fiving random players, waving at kids, doing little “hooray dances” when it seems something good has happened. I didn’t do anything fancy at all. Once I even let my friend Stephen do it for me because I wanted to go do something else that day. So I just gave him my security pass and told him to have at it.
Huh. I’ve always assumed they needed big people to go inside those “stand-up” costumes. Aren’t they heavy?
I’m sure some of them are very heavy. Mine was a pretty simple furry bodysuit and then a giant head. But the head was fiberglass, so quite light. The most difficult part was the feet. They weren’t heavy, but they were huge. That forced me to walk spraddle-legged, which could be exhausting.
McSweeney’s: good on pie!
Did you read the ones about the cheapest HMO and the internet-search misunderstanding?
I did not. But I will. Oh, I will.