Monday Night Romance: Let's talk football mascots
It's time for another edition of Monday Night Romance, where romance author Tracy Solheim and book blogger Kim Lowe dish about football stats, romance novels and pop culture for the football fan and football widow alike.
This week, Simon & Schuster is celebrating Animal Welfare Week. Animals play a significant part in our American culture, including America's game — football!
Kim: Animal Welfare Week piqued my interest in the NFL mascots:
Animals: 20
People: 7
None: 4
Other: 1 (San Diego Charger is a lightning bolt.)
Baltimore's mascot is Poe — a black raven named for the city's celebrated author, Edgar Allen Poe. Poe is a costumed cheerleader of sorts. But the live ravens steal the limelight when Rise and Conquer entertain the crowd with the assistance of their handlers from The Maryland Zoo.
Tracy: Here in Atlanta, the Falcons don't have an actual live falcon as their mascot, but they do have Freddie Falcon, a guy in a costume. Freddie is more than a feathered cheerleader with a beak. Earlier in the year, he tackled a rowdy Tampa Bay who ran onto the field during a game. You can check out the hilarious video here.
Kim: In college football, the service academies bring their animal mascots to home games. Billy the Goat became the Navy's mascot in 1893 in honor of the live goats that often accompanied sailors on long sea voyages. The goats ate the garbage and provided fresh milk. In 1899, Army adopted the mule as their mascot as mules carried supplies on the battlefield. The current mules are named Ranger III and Stryker. The Bird, a trained falcon, performs aerobatics at the Air Force Academy to demonstrate the cadets' lofty goals to fly high.
Tracy: In 1953, the student body of the University of Tennessee chose Smokey as the school's mascot. The Pep Club held a contest to select a coonhound, a native breed of the state, as the school's live mascot. Announcements of the contest in local newspapers read, "This can't be an ordinary hound. He must be a 'Houn' Dog' in the best sense of the word."
The late Rev. Bill Brooks entered his prize-winning blue tick coonhound, Brooks' Blue Smokey, in the contest. At halftime of the Mississippi State game that season, the dogs were lined up on the old cheerleaders' ramp at Shields-Watkins Field. Each dog was introduced over the loudspeaker and the student body cheered for their favorite, with Blue Smokey being the last hound introduced. When his name was called, he barked. The students cheered and Smokey threw his head back and barked again. This kept going until the stadium was in an uproar and UT had found its mascot.
Kim: Speaking of dogs, Simon & Schuster is spotlighting L.A. Kornetsky's Doghouse for Animal Welfare Week. It is book three in Kornetsky's cozy mystery series featuring a cat and a dog who help their human owners solve crime in Seattle.
Tracy: I love books with dogs as characters. Ronie Kendig's A Breed Apart series features military dogs. Diane Kelly writes a fun K-9 series featuring Paw Enforcement and the upcoming Paw and Order. But one author takes it a step further: Catherine Mann, author of Shelter Me, is an active volunteer with her local Humane Society, serving on their board of directors and fostering puppies and special-needs dogs (she stopped counting at a hundred). She's definitely an author who epitomizes Animal Welfare Week!
The discussion continues at Kim's book blog, SOS Aloha, with a special giveaway from Kim.
Tracy Solheim is an avid sports fan who writes football-themed romance for Berkley Sensation. See what she's up to at www.tracysolheim.com.