By GEOFF MOSHER The News Journal
01/29/2006
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Before YoUDee, there was another University of Delaware mascot. Remember its name? Neither can Robert Boudwin. But he remembers witnessing the abuse the mascot absorbed. "The favorite thing for students to do was bring marshmallows to try to peg the mascot with," he said. "Every now and then, you would get the battery."
It was that culture of athletic apathy and mascot dispirit that Boudwin, then a freshman at Delaware, and the university administration aimed to change.
Out went "the other mascot." In came YoUDee, a more confident, brazen bird that played to the most rabid Blue Hens fans.
Change soon followed.
Since Boudwin first donned the inaugural YoUDee costume in September 1993, the mascot's popularity has soared on a regional and national scale.
Today, YoUDee is one of the school's most recognizable faces, and arguably its most lucrative marketing tool. YoUDee frequently appears at weddings, reunions, graduations, hospitals, parades and nursing homes -- not to mention university sporting events and other school-related activities.
YoUDee's likeness also appears on school buses, school facilities and school supplies.
"It was said a few years ago that YoUDee is the most recognizable individual in the state of Delaware," UD President David P. Roselle wrote in an e-mail.
YoUDee also is ubiquitous in mascot circles. He recently placed fourth in an annual competition that attracts the country's most renowned mascots.
And while YoUDee's rise has mirrored the university's ascent on the athletic scene, the mascot also has helped those inside the costume climb the ladder of success.
Former YoUDees proudly tout Delaware as "Mascot U." Four of them have cultivated a flourishing career in the professional mascot business.
The common joke among them: They arrived at Delaware seeking higher education; they left in an animal costume.
"I just thought it would be a neat way to be a center of attention," said Boudwin, better known these days as Clutch, mascot for the NBA's Houston Rockets. "I never would have dreamed it would have gone this far for me, personally, or the university as a whole."
Empty nest
Boudwin and YoUDee were a perfect marriage. The university craved a mascot upgrade, and Boudwin, an accounting major, sought ways to better occupy his free time.
Roselle and his public relations staff, headed by the late Mary J. Hempel, teamed with Real Characters, an Atlanta-based advertising agency that provided mascots and mascot personalities for Michigan State University and the University of Georgia.
Together, they crafted the blueprint for YoUDee. They just needed the right personality to bring the mascot to life.
In September 1993, YoUDee was introduced to Blue Hens fans at a home football game. Boudwin had earned the right to wear the mascot's uniform.
"I got lucky," said Boudwin, who heard about the tryout from cheerleaders during a dorm party in his freshman year. "I got the job, and that's when I started to get into it. That's when it took off."
It hasn't landed since.
Boudwin is the patriarch of all YoUDees, but his successors helped forge a lineage of mascot excellence that continues today.
With assistance from David Raymond, the original Phillie Phanatic, the university mascot program has become competitive and promising, offering a unique collegiate experience and providing a gateway to a professional mascot career.
"You got to be the best of the best [to become a professional], or be lucky and be at the right place, but we instill in training that it's not just running out and being goofy," said Raymond, who owns a Newark-based character/mascot-building business and conducts mascot training camp each summer at UD. "We make it sound like what it is: a professional endeavor.
"The university makes these kids feel like part of a sports team. You can make the argument that nothing is more important in selling the university than YoUDee."
Soaring heights
Boudwin, who recently won the NBA's Mascot of the Year award and makes about 300 promotional appearances a year, paved the way for future YoUDees to parlay their experience into job opportunities.
Chris Bruce, a 2002 graduate, boosted YoUDee to new heights his senior year when his performance as "Dr. YoUDee" in the national competition earned YoUDee his only first-place finish.
Upon graduation, Bruce accepted a job with Raymond's mascot company, Raymond Entertainment Group, which designs, formulates and develops mascot characters and personalities for schools and corporations.
Brandon Williams, a 2003 UD graduate from Bear, turned his YoUDee career into a job with the Baltimore Ravens. He now appears as Poe, a playfully oafish bird with oversized shoes and a robust midsection, and makes about 200 appearances a year.
The Eagles' mascot, Swoop, also is a former Delaware student and YoUDee inhabitant. Due to Eagles team policy, only Swoop's real first name, Ryan, can be revealed. Swoop recently starred in an NFL.com commercial and made more than 400 appearances last year.
"Part of the success is based on that people doing it are involved in the program and really want to live up to that standard that's been set," Bruce said. "They're always trying to push to become better."
Since YoUDee's inception, the university has added more students to fill the uniform and funded the program with scholarship money to reward students for the amount of time being YoUDee requires.
Sharon Harris, the university's mascot director, said tryouts recently drew 38 students. Fledgling YoUDees must serve an apprenticeship to senior YoUDees before they are ready to entertain large crowds or make public appearances.
"I think some people come and have no idea what they're getting themselves into," Harris said.
Added one senior YoUDee, whose name also is kept secret because of university policy: "There's a tremendous pressure to keep up the high standard these guys have set, and not let the character fall off the face of the Earth. Especially at nationals, you want to beat last year's guy and get a high score and high ranking, just to keep up the high tradition we have."
Newark, DE 19711