Even though tens of thousands of people watch J.D. work, no one knows it’s him. Here’s a hint: He’ll be the guy in the giant bird costume, maybe tackling goalies during an intermission race.
J.D. plays Tommy Hawk, the Blackhawks mascot. He landed the role in December after applying through a job board, sending in a tape and auditioning. He’s working hard like any good new hire — testing his routines, developing the character and, because this is his first stint with a hockey team, taking ice-skating lessons.
“A lot of people think that the person in the mascot suit is just some high school or college kid trying to make some extra bucks, you know, just fooling around and stuff like that, whereas a lot of the time, it’s actually people who take it seriously,” J.D. said.
How seriously? The performers did not want their full names printed (RedEye uses only nicknames in this story), nor would they consent to being photographed out of costume. Some teams go even further: The Bulls and the Wolves wouldn’t allow their mascots — Benny the Bull and Skates the Wolf — to be interviewed in or out of character.
And speaking while actually wearing the suit? Not an option, which makes for some sticky situations, like in January when J.D. wasn’t able to get past security guards for the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field. He suited up outside the stadium — there was nowhere to dress inside — and he couldn’t plead his case. It seems communicating solely through high-fives limits one’s negotiation skills. He scrambled to find someone who could vouch that he wasn’t just a nut case in a bird suit and eventually made it into the game.
Getting around in the costume is no easy feat either. (Try encasing yourself in a Styrofoam bodysuit and pulling off a halftime dance routine and you’ll begin to understand.)
“The suit’s so big, sometimes if you move a certain part of your body, YOU move it, but maybe the suit doesn’t move and people can’t see it, so you’re just kind of standing there, looking weird,” J.D. said.
It gets hot in the costumes too.
Jim’s first football game as Northwestern’s Willie the Wildcat almost was his last. It was the first game of the 2007 season, against Northeastern, and the temperature topped 80 degrees. The Willie suit adds about 40 degrees, and Jim barely made it to the locker room to collapse at halftime.
“I was very close to just passing out on the field, which would have been really awful,” he said. “Kids would have been like, ‘Mommy, why isn’t Willie moving?’ ‘Oh, he’s just taking a catnap.’ “
For Jim, keeping his alter ego a secret is tricky with university life. There are six Willie performers, so no one student is burdened with balancing schoolwork and all the mascot appearances. This means that Jim sometimes has to take the suit back to his room to air out or to be ready for a game the next day.
“It’s in this really big, giant baseball bag,” Jim said. “So, yeah, sometimes I feel like it’s really obvious, but at the same time, maybe people just think I’m the equipment guy moving some stuff around.”
Jim thinks he’ll hang up the oversize mascot head after college, but J.D. and Pat — who used to play Sky Guy for the Sky and now works for a minor-league baseball team in California — are pursuing mascoting as a career. J.D. might transition to an office-based marketing role when he’s no longer able to chase goalies for sport.
While that might be a depressing switch, there’s a least one person who would be excited to see J.D. trade a feathered suit for an Armani one.
“My dad, he kind of is more traditional,” J.D. said. “He’d say, ‘How’s the advertising part of your job going?'”
