Dogpatch Press

Sports fans are notoriously devoted.  Fursuits are incredibly photogenic.  Mascots and fursuiting make a powerful crossover when they meet.

It happens at games when fursuiting fans get noticed for national TV.  Sometimes a furry gets to be a mascot with the sweet moves and personalities that seem to spring naturally from our cons.  There are even official, high-profile team characters commissioned from fursuit makers.

That’s all covered in the article series continued in the recent Q&A with Uncle Kage and Kodi of Midwest Furfest.  It started with 1) The beginning of mascots and fursuiting, 2) Fursuiting crossover with pro sports, and 3) The National Mascot Hall of Fame.

Cornbread Wolf brings the voice of a true furry fan to this story.  This isn’t about ordinary furmeets, or a safe way to support teams like everyone else.  He stands out in the crowd in a super powerful way by following two passions to the same place.  It’s a great example of my favorite thing, Street Fursuiting.  Find him on Furaffinity, Facebook, and Twitter.

From Cornbread’s photo gallery

Cornbread explains how it started:  

“I’ll be honest – I was initially inspired by someone else to start suiting at the college games. It was Fall of 2012. I was pretty new to the fandom and didn’t know very many people in the area or even the state. At the time I was a sophomore at GA Tech, and had just commissioned a partial from Syber.

One Saturday I started watching the University of Georgia game (they’re our rivals). At one point the camera panned over the student section. On the outer edge of the screen, I saw a tiny, dog shaped blip of blue and green in all that awful red and black. At that moment I was completely convinced I saw a fursuiter in the uGA student section. However, they never really panned back over that section again. I eventually started to doubt what I had seen. There was no way that there was a fursuiter in that crowd.

So I eventually reached out to /r/furry in search of this mysterious fursuiter. Within 24 hours I got my answer. It was true. His name was Alec. It made me feel this sense of awe. There was a fursuiter? At uGA of all places? I was pretty impressed. uGA is not nearly as progressive as GT in terms of something like this. So that day I told myself I would start suiting at GT games as soon as I could. I was not going to allow furry to be represented front and center at a school in bumble fuck Athens and not in the heart of Atlanta, known for being much more progressive. (Excuse my french!)

That is basically my motivation for why I started suiting at the games. I wanted my fandom to be represented on my campus, especially if it was being so openly displayed at uGA.”

From Cornbread’s photo gallery

Like Superman does his thing.

“Running around in suit was quite a fun time. I tend to treat fursuiting the way superman does his thing. I’d throw the suit on in my dorm and try to quickly run out. That way no one knew who this crazy wolf guy was running around during home games.  Being in the middle of a college gameday, while wearing a giant dog suit, is pretty exhilarating. So many children smile and run up to you wanting pictures or high fives. I would even heckle the opposing teams fans, steal their hats playfully, basically anything to stir up friendly banter. It was rewarding to see the children and even the less sober adults laugh and smile as they interacted with me. That’s the part I love the most.

As for getting into the stadium, I never contacted anyone about being able to wear a mask in the stands. The first try was terrifying. I had no idea if they would let me in. However, it worked flawlessly. Plus I wasn’t asked to remove the head so I didn’t even have to break character! Once you get in the gate it’s a mad dash to see who gets to claim the front of the stands. That’s the best seat in the house, right in the front of SWARM (the student section).

I would stay in suit the entire duration of the game. Some of the earlier games in the season were giant fursuit endurance tests, but I had no desire to give up my front a center view of the game. Every now and then I would get on the big screen inside the stadium. I could be seen on ESPN a few times, and I was once featured on ESPN’s weekly “Super Fan’s” gallery.

All in all I loved every moment of it. I am extremely thankful that I saw Alec that day. Without that I know for a fact I never would have pursued this and I owe it all to him.”

Thanks Cornbread!  Have a bunch of hugs for sharing this slice of life, and keep doing what you do.