After a year of anticipation, the six students who dressed as the iconic mascots – Freddie and Frieda the Falcon – were revealed at the end of the women’s basketball game against Toledo on Saturday Feb. 17.
The six students tasked with playing Freddie and Frieda were: Kelly Knodel, Jason Mefferd, Erin Lynch, Jakob Fay, Amaya Quaker and Ethan Fontana.
Lynch said being a campus tour guide played a role in why she applied to become a mascot because many previous birds had been tour guides before. She said she heard former mascots speak about how much fun they had, especially during the reveal when all their friends get to find out.
“Listening to them talk about their experience, that made me really want to do it,” she said.
Mefferd shared a similar experience, as seeing the mascots around campus and on social media made him increasingly more interested in what being a mascot entailed and potentially applying.
“You start to see how cool the experience is and then you’re like, ‘Maybe this is something I want to do,’” he said.
Lynch and Mefferd both spoke about how keeping the secret was by far the biggest challenge for them as mascots. Lynch emphasized on a time when they went to Disney and when their friends asked them what they did over the weekend, they had to play it off like they didn’t do much.
Mefferd spoke about how when they are at sporting events and when BGSU has a big win, they can’t say too much about it because if they get into a conversation, it could snowball into being found out. He also mentioned that after taking photos with friends as the bird, he had to be careful to not accidentally blow his cover after the fact by bringing it up.
“You have all these experiences in-suit, and you can’t tell anyone about these experiences,” he said.
As for Mefferd and Lynch’s favorite memories as Freddie and Frieda, Mefferd talked about Graduation Day, as he said it is a big milestone and it is full of excitement.
He said how students’ love for BGSU and Freddie and Frieda come out on Graduation Day because it is their final experience at the University.
“For us to be there and to share those experiences with them is my favorite experience,” he said.
Lynch said the countless small experiences became what she cherishes most about her time as a mascot.
“It’s the small one-on-one interactions that just make it so special and I think make up the entire experience,” she said.
