SEMO football preview: Playing Rowdy a treat for Southeast Missouri State students

This story is part of the Southeast Missouri State football preview series. Click here to read about the importance of the gameday experience and traditions to coach Tom Matukewicz.

For one-third of the Southeast Missouri State football team's home games, he'll slip on the bright yellow tights, put on the red suit and lace up the size 17 shoes.

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

The 22-year-old, who is a fifth-year senior at the university, will then pop the large bird head on and be transformed into Rowdy the Redhawk.

It's a role he's had for the last three years, and his true identity isn't supposed to be known. For the people inside the costume, keeping their identity secret, even to friends, is a way to maintain the mascot's mystery and magic.

A few years ago a close friend of his, who is one of three current Rowdys and also has been a mascot for a professional baseball team in the Frontier League, approached him about the role as Southeast's mascot.

"She asked me if I was interested in doing it and I said, 'Absolutely,' because my parents always said that would be like the best job for me growing up," he said.

"I'm goofy, I'm a little over the top and I don't particularly care what people think about what I'm doing, and I enjoy dancing," he added when asked why his parents thought that.

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

The first task in his tryout was to make sure he was capable of walking in the costume, which he said wasn't an issue. His size 15 feet fit fairly well in the two-sizes larger Redhawk sneakers.

Next they spoke with him to see if he had the outgoing personality for the role, and finally he had a tryout in front of a small crowd at a volleyball game against a non-conference opponent.

He's entering his fourth year as the university's mascot, and knows exactly what to expect when he hops into the big red bird suit for a football game this season.

"The first thing: it's hot," he said. "The second thing is it's absolutely incredible. We have a great fanbase, and those who come out to the games are excited to see the football team, but next they're excited to see the mascot and be motivated. ...

"Whenever Rowdy comes through people are just excited to see him, excited to take pictures. I get kind of offended sometimes when people aren't excited to see me walking around school, but they're more excited to see the mascot."

LAURA SIMON ~ lsimon@semissourian.com

He's got too many entertaining stories from his days as Rowdy, but one he likes to share is the time another mascot tried to pick a fight.

"Like he shoved me," he said with a laugh. "But Rowdy's a bigger person than that."

The three students who are wearers of the Rowdy costume don't just show up on game day for their moment in the spotlight and to receive hugs, and tail pulls, from adoring kids.

"To be completely honest, we all watch kind of a lot of game film," he said. "We look at other mascots from other universities and see how they do it. One girl actually recommended that I watch a show on Netflix called "Behind the Mask" and look how intricate at preparing for all of it is."

He said sometimes he tries to do "too much," and that Rowdy is "ambitious" when it comes to entertaining the crowd at Houck Stadium.

"It's really hard to maintain his cool persona while wanting to act a fool," he said. "When you're underneath the mask like you realize you could probably do anything you want but you're still representing the university, and as much as you want to step out and be wild you don't want to make Rowdy look like a fool."