By Blake Jackson
The Main Event
Erik Gransberg hadn't donned the Sooner suit two months before it became apparently clear
Oklahoma fans weren't at all fans of the new OU mascot.
That's when a link to his
Facebook page appeared on an OU message board.
And Gransberg began receiving death threats.
"Who was I? Just a kid trying to get his college paid for,” Gransberg said. "There was just a lot of hostility from a small group of fans. It was scary.”
A student-led initiative in early 2004 sought to replace 20-year-old basketball/wrestling mascot Top Daug with a creature more rooted in Sooner tradition. After considering a pioneer and the Seed Sower from the campus' South Oval, a selection committee settled on the
Sooner Schooner.
More specifically, the horses that pull it.
"That was the most obvious choice to everybody,” said OU spirit coordinator
Lori Kemmet. "They wanted to use them in tandem just like Boomer and Sooner and named them (that way).”
The committee of donors, administrators, students and athletics staff was pleased with the debut of its new, all-sport mascot in August of 2004.
Fans weren't pleased with the change.
Even taking into account the cartoonish nature of mascots, the first incarnations of Boomer and Sooner hardly resembled horses.
The heads featured spiky red hair, enormous eyes, snarling mouths and pudgy snouts. Before long, the horses had earned the nickname "horse-pigs.”
"That first season, I thought they looked a little bit like a cross between Porky Pig and a donkey or something,” Kemmet said. "They did have an image issue that first season.”
Gransberg even found problems inside the suit.
The head was built around a baseball helmet, limiting movement. And the costume was unbearably hot.
"I made immediate changes to mine,” he said. "I pulled off the eyelashes and loosened the helmet. The mascots are a work in progress.”
Dave Raymond remembers the first Boomer/Sooner.
Analyzing mascots is his job.
"Let's discuss the limitations of creating an animated horse,” said
Raymond, creator of the
Phillie Phanatic and CEO of character-branding company
Raymond Entertainment Group. "Well, they've got hooves so they can't sign autographs. Then they've got a really long head and nose. And they snarl.
"Snarling horses scare kids.”
The redemption of the horse-pigs began in 2006 when Gransberg's Sooner was selected to the Capitol One All-America Mascot Team as one of the top 12 mascots in the country.
Gransberg had sent in a highlight video featuring an updated version of his costume.
This one had a longer snout and smaller eyes. The spiky red hair had been replaced by cream-colored locks. The snarl was dialed down.
"I think one of his signature moves was a backflip,” said
Capital One Bowl spokesperson
Stephen Schooff. "I remember that specifically. (The team) was designed to celebrate the unsung heroes of college football.”
From death threat-garnering horse-pig to unsung hero of college football in two years.
It was a quick transition for
Oklahoma's new mascot.
"You're constantly trying to create that perfect costume that's going to give you the best movement and the best crowd interaction,” Kemmet said. "We're still fairly new. Once we have a mascot that's been around a few decades, we might come across the perfect face, the perfect eyes and the perfect nose.”
Even today, Boomer and Sooner are going through a redesign.
Gransberg, who now coaches the OU mascots, is on the committee charged with making the costumed critters even more fan-friendly.
"The decision has been made,” he said. "We're trying out softer foams and lighter weight material. We're trying to tweak and evolve this into a good mascot. That's why I stay involved.”