Pistol Pete took home gold this month for the second straight year at Ripperoo’s Mascot Olympics in Breckenridge, Colo., by outlasting all other mascots from the Rocky Mountain region in a downhill obstacle course.
The competition was a race among local, professional and collegiate mascots from Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states. The course included running around pylons, crawling under an arch and jumping over objects. Once the mascots reached the bottom, they had to slide down the course from the top all the way to the finish line.
Pistol Pete represented UW in midst of some stiff competition, including the Air Force Falcon of the Air Force Academy, Chip the Buffalo from the University of Colorado, Wooly the Mammoth of Colorado Mammoths Lacrosse, Miles the Horse of the Denver Broncos and Edson the Eagle and Franz the Fox from the Colorado Rapids Soccer Club.
Pistol Pete said he recognized this as a great opportunity to engage in competition with his fellow mascots.
“It’s always great to get together, and there’s a real camaraderie and a real sense of competition between the two characters,” Pete said.
Each mascot’s duty is to represent their school’s pride and spirit, Pete said. But even with this competitive edge seen in mascots on game day, character is a top priority.
“There is overall good character with the Air Force Falcon and same goes with the Buffaloes. I think that between the mascots there’s a really good sense of community no matter what the team is, unless you’re talking about Cam the Ram from CSU,” said Pete.
Pete had a couple of close calls in the first two rounds of the competition. Going up against Wooly the Mammoth in the final round, Pete won by a substantial margin after Wooly hit a foam tree on the obstacle course.
The hours of training Pete said he put in pays dividends when opportunities like these arise, giving him the chance to represent the brown and gold in head-to-head competition with fellow mascots.
