LITTLE ROCK — Mascot takes role bit too far
The musket toted by West Virginia University’s Mountaineer isn’t just a prop.
It’s a bona fide weapon, and mascot Jonathan Kimble demonstrated that when he brought down a black bear with it in the woods.
Now the school has ordered Kimble to stop using his university-issued weapon on hunting trips after a video of this week’s kill was posted online. He said hunting with the gun is a Mountaineer mascot tradition.
Kimble, 24, from Franklin, W.Va., accompanied more than a dozen friends and family on the trip in Pendleton County on Monday. In the video, Kimble is shown firing the musket at the bear in a tree.
“Let’s go Mountaineers!” Kimble yells afterward.
He also posted a photo of himself with the bear on Twitter.
The West Virginia mascot wears buckskin and a coonskin cap and fires the musket - loaded with black powder but minus ammunition - at home athletic events and other sponsored activities. Hunting isn’t one of them.
“While Jonathan Kimble’s actions broke no laws or regulations, the university has discussed this with him and he agrees that it would be appropriate to forego using the musket in this way in the future,” WVU spokesman John Bolt said.
Kimble said Friday that he’s been hunting all his life, and this was the first black bear he’s killed. He said all his friends have congratulated him for that.
“Hunting can be a controversial topic,” Kimble said. “I apologize to any of those who took offense to the video. It definitely wasn’t my intent to offend anybody.”
Kimble said taking the musket on hunting trips has become a tradition with the mascots.
“Other Mountaineers have gone and shot multiple deer with it before,” he said. “I’ve taken it with me deer hunting before, also.”
The Mountaineer mascot first appeared at athletic events in the 1936-1937 school year. The Mountaineer is selected each year, and the mascot’s outfit is custom tailored to fit the winner.
Bad Santa
Even Santa Claus is aware of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 45-year Stanley Cup drought.
A Ontario man dressed as Santa Claus was less than complimentary of the Maple Leafs when he saw a 3-year-old boy wearing a hat featuring the team’s logo.
According to the Toronto Sun, Mary Trent said Santa told her son that his red plaid jacket made him look like Paul Bunyan. Then Santa turned his attention to the Maple Leafs, who last won the Stanley Cup in 1967.
“Then he said, ‘Oh, you’re wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs toque. You shouldn’t be wearing that. They suck,” Trent said. “At that point, I took my son and told him we should go, Santa isn’t being very good today.
“He wanted to know who Paul Bunyan was? He wanted to know why Santa said the Toronto Maple Leafs suck. I told him Santa was having a bad day. I can’t really tell him Santa’s a jerk.”
The man who dressed as Santa at Lowe’s Toronto Christmas market was fired after Trent posted her story on the company’s Facebook page.
Quote of the day
“We want to win state championships. We don’t hang runner-up banners.” Stuttgart Coach Billy Elmore, on his team’s expectations
Sports, Pages 22 on 12/08/2012