Mascots Brawl At Conference Tourney -- Ncaa Tournament FanHouse

Mascot Punished After Strange Melee

Posted Mar 14, 2009 1:03 AM

By SCOTT SONNER

(AP)

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RENO, Nev. (March 15) - Utah State benched its mascot for Saturday night's championship game between the Aggies and Nevada a day after "Big Blue" the bull and New Mexico State's "Pistol Pete" got physical with each other near the end of a semifinal matchup in the Western Athletic Conference basketball tourney.

Mascots Behaving Badly

One pull of the mustache turns into a fight between New Mexico State mascot Pistol Pete, pictured, and Utah State's Big Blue the bull mascot. After Big Blue ripped off Pistol Pete's fake mustache, the cowboy chased the bull down and tried to choke his rival during conference tournament play. Click through for other cases of mascot misconduct.

New Mexico State University Athletics, AP

Rice University mascot Sammy the Owl was ejected from one of the team's games in late January after getting physical with a referee.

Nelson Chenault, US PRESSWIRE

An actor who played the Diamondbacks' mascot, Baxter, was recently fired after he was pulled over on an Arizona highway and accused of having a blood-alcohol content of nearly twice the legal limit - with the costume in the back seat. Police say he also admitted smoking marijuana earlier in the day.

Nick Doan, WireImage

The Penn State senior who plays the Nittany Lion mascot was suspended after being hit with a DUI charge in November was forced to miss the Rose Bowl.

Elsa, Getty Images

One of the actors who dresses up as the Pittsburgh Steelers' team mascot, Steely McBeam, was arrested and accused of driving under the influence in April.

Michael Fabus, Getty Images

Last March, there was a spectacular brawl between Oral Roberts' Eli the Eagle and IUPUI's Jawz the Jaguar. Watch the Fight

YouTube.com

The Oregon Duck got into a fight with Houston's Cougar in 2007, and earned himself him a suspension and a spot in the YouTube Hall of Fame. Watch the Battle

Rick Bowmer, AP

In August 2007, the Mariners' Moose drew the ire of Boston fans when he hit former Red Sox outfielder Coco Crisp with his ATV during a game in Seattle.

Elaine Thompson, AP

The Dodgers-Giants rivalry is fierce, and that spreads even to San Francisco's mascot Lou Seal. He was caught on tape in 2007 challenging an unruly Dodgers fan to fisticuffs.

Eric Risberg, AP

Benny the Bull got in hot water for shooting a T-shirt gun at two Celtics during an April 2008 game.

Gary Dineen, NBAE / Getty Images

During a timeout with 7 seconds left and NMSU leading Utah State 70-69, Big Blue confronted the cowboy mascot and ripped off his fake mustache after a man wearing a Nevada shirt at the game offered $100 to the student in the costume modeled after Paul Bunyan's Blue Ox if he would do so.

The cowboy then chased the bull to half court, jumped on his back and tried unsuccessfully to pull him to the floor. He then started to try to choke his rival before retreating to his end of the court. Moments later, Utah State's Tyler Newbold hit a 15-foot shot with 3.1 seconds remaining to defeat NMSU 71-70.

Utah State said in a statement Saturday that the university apologized to NMSU officials following the incident. The school said the $100 Big Blue accepted for the evil deed will be donated to Kids Kottage, a shelter for abused and neglected children in Reno.

The man confirmed to The Associated Press Friday night that he did in fact pay the mascot the $100, but declined to provide his name. He said he did not expect the NMSU mascot to respond the way he did.

"This is an unfortunate situation and a real learning experience for the entire (Utah State) Spirit Squad said Tiffany Evans, director of Student Involvement and Leadership Center at the school based in Logan. "We hold our spirit squad to the highest standards as official representatives of our institution."

The school did not provide the name of the student who serves as the mascot.

WAC Commissioner Karl Benson watched the game Friday night but said he did not see the incident. He said on Saturday he did not know if the league would issue a statement on the matter.

Tiffany Franklin, a spokeswoman for New Mexico State's athletic department, said from Las Cruces, N.M., on Saturday she would try to contact officials at NMSU to see if they had any comment.

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2009-03-14 01:32:32