Kenny Evans made Top Daug come alive for OU Sooners men’s basketball
Kenny Evans died lately. Probably you do not figure out the name. Then again, it’s possible you do. That was Evans’ magic.
He did far more than provide a mascot to lifestyle. Evans produced the guy in the mascot uniform subject to persons.
From 1987-90, Evans was OU’s Major Daug, the Billy Tubbs-impressed mascot who became the feeling at all those wild Faster game titles of the Billyball era. From crowdsurfing with the learners to holding up cards mocking Bobby Knight, Evans resonated with OU admirers.
In 2003, extended immediately after his times as an OU student, Kelvin Sampson requested Evans to return to the function. Alas, OU in 2004 retired Top rated Daug (and wrestling’s Underdog), in favor of Boomer and Quicker.
But no OU mascot reached fans the way Leading Daug did, and no just one ever remodeled Major Daug the way Kenny Evans did.
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The university, via its men’s basketball Twitter account, saluted Evans on Wednesday following his dying:
“The OU men’s basketball family is deeply saddened by the passing of Kenny Evans, who entertained numerous OU followers as Top Daug in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. Kenny reworked Prime Daug into an iconic Lloyd Noble Centre determine with his unrivaled spirit, electrical power and passion, and had an innate means to make people today chortle.
“A genuinely good male and a Sooner by and through, he was the ideal to at any time put on the costume and will be enormously skipped. Kenny was truly the top rated puppy.”
Evans, who lived in Phoenix and had a extensive vocation in actual estate, also was a expert mascot. He was Boomer, the 1989 U.S. Olympic Competition mascot Eddie the Eagle, a spokesman for the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation Globie for the Harlem Globetrotters and Sergeant Slammer for the Oklahoma Town Cavalry of the Continental Basketball Association.
And it was Major Daug that elevated Evans to fame. He somehow built his variation of Major Daug stand out. Feel about it. The Thunder’s Rumble and OSU’s Pistol Pete are iconic mascots, but who wears the uniform by no means has mattered. Exact same with Boomer and Sooner.
It mattered with Best Daug.
“I have enjoyment,” Evans informed The Oklahoman back again in 2003. “My pleasure arrives out of creating beneficial experiences for children. Breaking boundaries by way of laughter.”
Evans always regretted OU’s choice to discontinue Major Daug.
“Leading Daug was big,” he reported. “They could have held him on and utilized distinct uniforms. I did not assume the horses would function as a mascot. They’re non-useful.”
I’m not a Boomer and Quicker basher. They look Okay to me. They have just one particular trouble. They are not Top rated Daug. And each and every other Best Daug had just one dilemma. They weren’t Kenny Evans.