Story By Stephanie McDuff
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For two years, Carrie Moore, Roeland Park junior, and her friends watched the Big Jay and Baby Jay mascots parade around at KU games. Then one of Moore's friends told Moore she'd make a great Baby Jay, and after thinking about the prospect, Moore realized that if she didn't try out she would regret it.
Moore said she saw being a Jayhawk mascot as a chance to express another part of her personality - her more goofy side.
But she also knew this opportunity would not be without sacrifice. To have enough time to be Baby Jay during her junior year, Moore had to postnose nursing school for a year.
The intense time commitments involved with being a mascot has been the biggest drawback for her. She said balancing her schoolwork and life as Baby Jay was sometimes difficult, although she had learned to schedule more study time this year.
Looking back, Moore said her year as a mascot was definitely worth the sacrifices, because of the many people she was able to meet as Baby Jay.
Moore said one of her favorite appearances was in Allen Field House, hearing the roar of the crowd during a basketball game.
"It just gives you the biggest rush," she said. "It's moments like that which makes everything completely worth it."
Traditionally there have been six mascots, three Big Jays and three
Turtle, who has been the mascot coach for two years, also played Baby Jay for two years.
The most unusual appearance Tuttle said she ever made as a mascot was at a wake for a former KU band member. During the memorial service, dressed as Baby Jay, Tuttle and others in attendance sang the Rock Chalk Chant.
Unsung heroes
After seeing an advertisement in The University Daily Kansan for mascot tryouts two years ago, Danny Iskak, HI Singapore,apore, junior, decided he would give it a try because being Big Jay sounded like fun. After two years of performing as Big Jay, Iskak said it had been a good experience.
"It's great once you get into costume," Iskak said.
Despite his enjoyment of performing for crowds and greeting fans, Ialek said the job could get frustrating at times.
"Some people forget there's a person under the costume." he said
Children have pulled on and punched the mascots, Iskak said, but there's little a nutte mascot could do to stop them.
Sara Jarrell, Lawrence senior and two-year mascot, agreed that little children could be obnoxious when they tried to remove the bird's head and find out who was inside the costume.
Even with the occasional ornery child, Jarrell said, her years as a mascot have been a great experience.
Danny Ikeka (far left), Indonesia *n junior; Carrie Moore, Roeland Park junior; Sara Jarell Alberquerque, N.M., senior; Tara Moloray, Elkhard sophomore, and Kyn Jones, Wellsville junior pose with their Jayhawk apparel. These five mascots stay busy showing their school spirit at numerous KU events.
Baby Jays, each year. This year, however, one person was academically disqualified, leaving only five. Each of the mascots is expected to exercise and remain in good physical condition throughout the year so they can keep up with all of the appearances they have to make.
Last year's mascots made more than 250 appearances, said mascot coach Le-Thu Tuttle, Lawrence graduate student, and Tuttle expects to surpass that number this year. The total does not include regular appearances at men's and women's basketball, football, soccer and volleyball games. The mascots also occasionally attend baseball games to cheer players on and entertain spectators.
Birthday parties, company picnics, hospital tours, the Hutchinson State Fair and special breakfasts are the most common special appearances made by the Jayhawks.
Wedding appearances are also fairly common. Throughout the years, Tuttle said, several people have requested that the school mascots walk the bride down the aisle or make an appearance at the reception.
"I've enjoyed every second." Jarrell said.
Jarrell was a KU cheerleader for one year, but decided that being a mascot might be more fun. As a mascot, she doesn't have to smile all the time and she can act like an idiot, she said.
Jarrell said she enjoyed approaching older alumni and little children and watching them react as they meet Baby Jay.
Jarrell's most memorable experience as a mascot was when she appeared at the birthday party for a 60-year-old KU alumnus who had brain cancer.
The man, who is now deceased, had been a life-long fan of the Jayhawks and had attended every home basketball game except one since he was five years old. Because of his illness, he could no longer attend the games, so his colleagues and friends brought the Jayhawk to him. Jarrell said the man was so happy that Baby Jay was at his party that he couldn't stop holding her hand and crying for joy. At that moment, jarrell said, she was honored to wear the mascot uniform.
Suiting up
Big Jay's costume weighs about 20 to 25 pounds, and the pint-sized Baby Jay's suit weighs about 15 pounds. The heavy suit and awkward head size makes it harder for the mascots to tumble during games.
New costumes were purchased last year and were revealed at the KU vs. UCLA basketball game. Tuttle said the suits cost $5,000 each and were made by Scollon Productions, Inc. in North Carolina.
The new costume for Baby Jay, however, wasn't quite what Tuttle had envisioned and was sent back a couple of times to be remade before it looked just right.
Although they can't tumble too much, this year's mascots have joined in more of the dance routines and cheerleading stunts.
The heavy costumes also are hot to wear. Even though he had been warned that he would get hot while wearing the Big Jay suit, Iskak said, he didn't realize how much being a mascot would wear him out.
Tara Mobray, Elkhart sophomore, remembers everyone telling her that being a mascot would be hard work, but said she never understood how difficult the task was until she performed at a basketball game.
Despite the sweaty costume, Mobray said, her appearance at her first basketball game this year was when she realized she truly enjoyed being Baby Jay. She loved running around during pregame festivities pretending to act like a three-year-old, she said.
Trying out
The mascot's season starts in April and continues through March. As this season draws to a close, Tuttle is preparing for next year's tryouts.
A mandatory clinic will be held April 21 in Anschutz Sports Pavilion for those interested in becoming a mascot for next year. The actual tryout will be April 22.
Tuttle said that endurance and creativity were two qualities of a good Big Jay and Baby Jay. She also said it was important for the mascot to be able to interact well with the crowd.
There is a $$ clinic fee for the mascot tryouts. During the clinic, students will out on the costumes to get used to wearing them.
A panel consisting of band members, alumni, professors and former mascots will select the new mascots. Tuttle said there had usually been five judges, but this year she plans to add a few more. The six people selected as mascots will attend the University's cheerleading camp during the last week of May and weekly practices throughout the year.
News of the WEIRD
The Associated Press reported in January on the 8-year-old anti-smoking policy of Kimball Physics of Wilton, N.H. The policy not only forbids smoking at work, but it subjects each employee and visitor to a sniff test of the person's breath and clothing performed by receptionist Jennifer Walsh. Those with an odor so strong that it is likely they smoked within the last two hours are not allowed into the building.
LEAD STORIES
In February, Schenectady, N.Y., patrolman Robert J. O'Neill reportedly retired. He had been on sick leave since 1982, at full salary that
now has reached $508,000, because of psychological problems related to his Vietnam Marine experience that allegedly made him a danger to the public.
Modern-day Stagecoach Robberies: Reuters news service reported in January that the 400-mile route from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Russia, is being worked by armed thieves who rob and hijack cargo trucks. And in August, gunmen on the runway at the airport in Parpignan, France, halted a taxing Air Force airliner carrying 167 passengers and stole moneybags containing about $800,000.
■ In a November Associated Press dispatch from Payiir, Sudan, a reporter described the local competition among unmarried Dinka men to gorge themselves and refrain
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
from exercise to become fat. This practice is regarded as a way to win females because it demonstrates that the men's cattle herd is large enough for him to consume extra milk and meat. The typical Dinka is tall and reed-thin — former basketball player Manute Bol is a Dinka — and some men gain so much unfamiliar weight so quickly that they have been known to topple over.
The hottest selling computer software in Japan in November was a love simulation game in which boys try to get a virtual 17-year-old girl, Shiori, to fall in love with them. There is even a magazine, Virtual Idol, devoted to supplying fictional tales of Shiori and other virtual girls. Wrote one young mar., Virtual Idol "is just the right kind of magazine for a person like me who's not interested in real girls."
By January, several news services had reported on an equally popular
Japanese computer craze, the Virtual Pet, a $16 electronic "bird" the size of an egg that responds to nurturing instincts in many teen-age girls. By pushing buttons, the owner can feed it, play with it, clean up after it and discipline it.
According to an October Associated Press story, young mothers in large Japanese cities have adopted the city park as a forum for vying for status. Some young mothers interviewed claimed they were scared to take their toddlers to the parks (to make their "park debut") because of the established cliques of mothers who dominate the facilities. Guide-books teach the proper park behavior; department stores feature the proper park clothing; and a recent satric movie depicted a park ruled by 50 authoritarian mothers.
In Singapore, which is so pristine that even public gum-chewing
is illegal, police expressed concern in February about the recent crisis of apartment dwellers in high rise buildings who casually toss their belongings out the window. Fifty-one people were arrested last year for throwing objects ranging from TV sets to a tricycle to flower pots.
The Time of London reported in December that Bombay (whose name was recently changed to Mumbai) become the first city in India to ban public spitting, which the reporter described as one of the two most ubiquitous of male habits in India (the other being public urination). "Boys barely old enough to walk can be heard practicing guttural sounds, which is regarded as macho," the article in the Times stated.
A September Los Angles Times story described what Argentine writer Tomas Eloy Martinez called
the country's obsession with emotional necrophilia toward its prominent citizens. Frequently, corpse of luminaries such as Juan Peron are dug up and either celebrated or desecrated to excite national pride. The hands of Peron's corpse were sawed off by a zealous grave robber in 1987 and have not been recovered and last year a judge ordered Peron's body to be disinterred yet again so that a DNA sample could be taken as evidence in a women's claim that she is Peron's illegitimate daughter.
According to a June China Daily story, 40 million Chinese live in caves, but many are leaving for regular houses, putting a strain on the available arable land in some areas. Thus, architects working for the government are designing futuristic cave homes in Gansu, Henan and Shanxi provinces to encourage the cave dwellers to stay put.