Joe Bruin, Stanford Tree walk the mascot walk

Friday, October 31, 1997

Joe Bruin, Stanford Tree walk the mascot walk

JOE BRUIN:

The most famous man, err … bear on campus is having an
identity crisis.

No, don’t worry, Joe Bruin is not going through his third
metamorphosis in as many years – rather he is merely searching for
an identity.

"It’s kind of sad in a way," said the man inside the costume who
would only identify himself as – you guessed it – Joe. "Even if you
hate Oski, it’s still kind of cool how he has a definite
personality about him. I just think it’s cool how he has that
tradition. I just don’t think we have that tradition with mascots,
they don’t have a personality."

If you missed him last week, the Oski that Joe speaks of is the
Cal mascot who is generally considered the thug of the Pac-10
mascot circle – security guards didn’t allow him on the UCLA
sidelines in fear of Joe’s safety – but is so beloved in Berkeley
that he has a secret society dedicated to him. And Oski himself can
never talk – legends have been told of past Oskis needing medical
attention at games but refusing to scream for help or even take off
their masks in an ambulance in fear of revealing their
identity.

And last week, when Joe Bruin and Oski took a bathroom break at
the same time, Joe said that Oski even did his business wearing the
cumbersome mask.

Those are the type of traditions that Joe speaks of. Those are
the types of traditions that Joe so desperately wants.

For Joe, though, the only recent tradition has been change. For
two and a half decades, the old Smiling Joe was popular with
students and alumni alike. However, like any old dinosaur in this
age where greed always seems to dominate loyalty, the old Joe was
eradicated in 1995, when a new mascot and logo was designed in
hopes the school would sell more merchandise.

"Steroid Joe," as he is called now by those that occupy his
suit, was hard-pressed to find any supporters and was abandoned
after only a year. He was replaced last year with "New Joe."

"In all honesty the new one has kind of grown on me," Joe said.
"I don’t think it’s all that bad, but I won’t even talk about the
Steroid Joes. The Smiling Joe was real popular with the kids and we
always have people coming up to us saying they like the old one.
Any time you change something like that, it’s hard."

But there is some good news, sort of. Old Joe is still around
lying lifeless in some closet in the Alumni Center. And though the
Spirit Squad wanted to bring Old Joe back for Homecoming last
Saturday, he was forced to stay locked up, due to some copyright
infringement.

Though Smiling Joe died two years ago, if Joe has his way,
tradition will soon return to Westwood.

"I would love to give Joe a personality, some tradition," Joe’s
human side said. "It’s hard sometimes because the fan support is
not always fanatical – you feed off the crowd in the games and when
they’re not into it, it’s harder to get motivated."

Not that he doesn’t love the Bruin faithful – it is because of
them that Joe likes his job so much.

"You’re out there in front of all those people and stuff and
it’s just like something comes over you and it’s really
exhilarating," he said. "It’s just tons of fun, it’s a really
exciting thing to do."

Making appearances at football, basketball and women’s
volleyball games as well as attending other sporting events and
special events like book fairs generally take up about 10 hours a
week for these volunteers chosen by the Spirit Squad every spring
quarter.

There are actually two different Joes and Josephines that rotate
duties throughout the school year.

Speaking of Josephine, her role is still yet to be defined.
Sister? Friend? Wife? Girlfriend?

"Nobody knows" said Joe, amazingly calm despite the ambiguity of
this very important detail. "I’ll look jealous if she sits on
somebody’s lap, and she’ll do the same, but we’ve never really set
anything up. Whatever people think is what they get."

What Joe, a senior business economics student gets is an
experience that he’ll never forget.

"It is the single best thing I ever decided to do," he said.
"It’s just an incredible experience."

That is, except of course after halftime of the basketball games
when the mascots are treated as sacrificial lambs – carrying pizzas
into a section full of hundreds of starving students to give away
to the craziest, loudest fans.

"It’s absolutely hellacious," Joe growled. "All they care about
is getting the pizza. I’ve been pushed, I’ve been booed, and one
guy even punched me in the stomach because I didn’t give him the
pizza."

Keeping in line with Smiling Joe’s laid-back personality New Joe
refused to retaliate.

Hey, maybe some traditions do live on after all.