Each year at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), six students are secretly chosen to represent the university as Freddie and Frieda Falcon – the university mascots. Being chosen for this role is not taken lightly by the university, and it takes serious dedication to BGSU and the legacy of Freddie and Frieda.  

Mirabella DeTillio is a third-year student, majoring in special education here at BGSU. DeTillio was chosen to play Frieda in the spring of 2025. 

“My freshman year on campus, I felt very lonely. I didn’t really know if I fit in at BG. But, during the weeks of welcome, Freddie and Frieda were always coming up to me or interacting with me.  They were the first to really make me feel welcomed… like I have a place here,” said DeTillio.  

While Freddie and Frieda had been spreading BGSU spirit, they were simultaneously inspiring DeTillio to become a BGSU bird.  

“I just knew that I wanted to be that same sign for someone else, who might be struggling to find their place to fit in,” said DeTillio.  

DeTillio applied to be Frieda in her freshman year,  but did not get an interview. She went back her sophomore year, and wound up being one of the 2025-2026 BGSU Frieda Falcons. 

The role of the BGSU birds is one of great importance, as they are needed at sporting events, on campus walk-throughs, graduation and much more. An average football gameday for Frieda is around eight hours long.  

“For football games, we usually get there around four hours early to get ready for the game,” said DeTillio. 

At first, getting ready to play the role of Frieda took about 30 minutes, nowadays DeTillio is a pro. 

“The suit itself is around 20 pounds. It can definitely get hard at times… but you have to push through. At first it took around 30 minutes… now though, I could probably get the suit on in five minutes,” said DeTillio.  

After getting ready for the game, Freddie and Frieda are off to spread BGSU cheer and pride.  

“We’ll go out and do a spirit walk and interact with people tailgating. We will take a ton of pictures throughout the whole day,” said DeTillio. 

But that’s not all, the birds get to run out onto the field with the cheerleaders and the football team. 

“Then we run the whole field with the cheer team and football team. Freddie and Frieda are usually at the front, kind of leading the way,” said DeTillio.  

Occasionally, there is a halftime feature, “Sometimes we’ll do something in the halftime show… for one of my football games we were on a pirate ship for the home opener,” said DeTillio. 

Once the day is done, the game is over and the stadium is closed, everyone goes home – Freddie and Frieda can’t tell a single soul about their cool experiences of the day.  

“Once it’s over, we go home and act like it never happened,” said DeTillio.  

The role is secretive, but joyous, as the bird family is able to grow close with one another, and DeTillio notes feeling closer to Bowling Green as a whole through this process.  

“I feel like I just truly made so many new connections to people that I wouldn’t have before. And also just finding out more about BG [Bowling Green], like the town and the university, was very special to me,” said DeTillio. 

Being Frieda allowed DeTillio to step away from her circle of friends, and get to know a bigger pool of BGSU fans and locals.  

“I got to interact with so many different community members and it was just nice to see so many different people all showing up for the same thing,” she said.  

Because the birds cannot share their identity with anyone, the group grows close with one another as they bond over being Freddie and Frieda.  

“I just feel like the connections that I made. My relationship with my siblings and Tyler, I mean, those were friendships that I wasn’t expecting…It’s crazy how close you can get with someone in one year because we all have this shared secret, I wouldn’t have a connection with them necessarily if I hadn’t done this,” said DeTillio. 

Through this support system, and found family, the role of Frieda slowly but surely changed DeTullio’s college experience, and life, for good.  

“The best part of being a bird… I think it’s the fact that no matter how hard your day was or if you’re going through something, once you get into the suit, you are the character. It’s time to spread your love for BGSU, and it always made me feel better,” said DeTillio.  

To learn more about being a BGSU bird, please follow this link.