Dawgs By Nature
Back in the day, this writer started a youth soccer league that included age groups U-8, U-10, and U-12. The fields were on a football field and in the outfields of two baseball fields, so there was plenty of room. Today, this league is the second largest in a three-county region.
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On opening day at the park, all the teams played, starting early Saturday morning and continuing into early afternoon. Every hour on this one day, businesses with costumed characters were invited to come out and engage with the kids, their parents, and do some self-promotion. Each mascot was scheduled for a solid hour, and then another character would arrive.
So, the Chick-fil-A cow came out for an hour, and next, the local radio station Cat Country’s Cool Cat mascot. The Forestry Service had Smokey the Bear, and the area’s AA professional hockey team had a military seagull costume. And there were lots of others, so filling up a schedule wasn’t an issue. And businesses loved the opportunity to be involved with children and spread the word of their commerce in hopes that folks would shop there with the free advertising.
All of these costumed characters had two things in common: a) they brought along an escort so that kids didn’t jump on the character’s back or pull their tail, and b) inside the costume was a sauna.
Opening day was always the first Saturday in September, which is a very hot month. Each character would mingle for 20 minutes, sit in an air-conditioned van for 20 minutes, then go back out for the final 20 minutes.
Many Cleveland Browns superfans have similar experiences on gameday. They come to games every week in full regalia.
“John Big Dawg Thompson” always wore that hot, sweaty mask all game, sitting in the old Dawg Pound. “The Bone Lady” had a huge get-up costume that grew and grew each year. “Captain Cleveland” wore a mask that only covered a portion of his face, but wore long camo pants with a huge cape. “Pumpkinhead” wears a fancy headgear that certainly gets pretty toasty inside. And “The Macho Fan” shows up in long pants, and sometimes a long-sleeved shirt or full jacket with a championship belt around his waist.
All of this is hot. And it can become inconvenient. But yet, they press on. It’s their character. It’s their passion. It’s what they have become for their beloved team, the Browns.
“Brownstronaut” is another Browns superfan. And anyone who comes across his path in the hallways underneath the stadium seats wants a photo, or at least to say hello. Or as they say in the South, to say hey.
What is this character? How did he get started? Why a space suit to a football game?
If this NFL club were the Dallas Cowboys, perhaps the association could be that he was a “Space Cowboy.” Or rooting for the Houston Texans, the parallel was that the City of Houston...
