a day in the life of red
Story By Jodi Hutchison

What’s black and red with short, squiggly dreads and gets fans excited and ASU spirit ignited?

Red! Arkansas State University’s beloved spirit character.

Red was born in the creative mind of ASU’s director of athletic marketing, Andrea Scott, and made his first public appearance in July 2003. He was originally created to energize the fans at athletic events, but Red has become much more – he has become a familiar personality for ASU supporters to cling to through the Indian mascot transition.

“I was given the charge of coming up with a spirit character, something that would have the ability to interact with the children…I researched other schools and cartoon characters and just sat down at the drawing table and started drawing,” Scott said.

Scott added that a spirit character is simply what its name implies, an entity that “brings spirit to the fans by entertaining them and making them laugh.”

Some would say that for a brief moment after Red was introduced fans were reluctant to accept this new member of the ASU family. All of that quickly changed and now Red’s image is synonymous with A-State spirit and he can be seen on windows and signs all over town. The bright red costumed character is an ASU athletic standard.

Recently, Occasions had a rare opportunity to interview Red, who stepped outside of his high-energy persona to tell us more about himself and the work he does. As one might well imagine, the most striking thing about this spirit character is his strong, sincere passion for sports and ASU — and his wild sense of humor.

“I am basically the embodied school spirit of the ASU faculty, staff, students and community,” Red said. “My main objective at an athletic event is to keep the crowd in the game and keep the atmosphere pumped up. At other events, my objective is to keep the crowd excited about the event.”

Many people probably aren’t aware of just how seriously Red takes his work. When it is show time, he works the crowds in a way that’s unmatched by most of the spirit characters or mascots across the country — and he’s got plenty of national awards to prove that he’s among the top in his field. According to Red, his honors include second, fourth and sixth-place rankings in the UCA National Championships and a couple of first-place awards and a third-place award through national cheerleading camps across the country. This is an impressive accomplishment for a character that’s been around for less than five years.

This industrious spirit character’s job isn’t limited to athletic events and formal competitions. Red takes his enthusiasmto the next level by spending time building excitement about other areas of the university, heightening enthusiasm at events in the local community and donating time to philanthropic causes. During the holiday season fans will find Red in the Jonesboro and Paragould Christmas parades, doing charity work (such as passing out gifts at a local hospital) and of course he will be at the basketball games. His commitment to school and community can be seen throughout the year, including the summer months and ASU breaks.

Even though he is involved in many different areas, sporting events remain his passion. So what’s a typical game day like for this multi-dimensional spirit character?He wakes in the morning and thoroughly grooms himself— paying special attention to his hair.

“I spend a lot of time on my hair,” he said, “I like my hair, sometimes it’s hard to maintain, but it’s worth it in the end…it’s my trademark and what people know me by.”

With his hair sufficiently coifed, Red carefully selects and dresses in one of his official A-State outfits and it’s off to the kitchen for breakfast—strawberry Pop Tarts, his favorite food. Next he is out the door and on the way to the tailgate parties where he mercilessly teases people attempting to enjoy pre-game festivities. One of Red’s favorite things to do at tailgate parties is to scarf down all the free food he can possibly consume. After he finishes sponging off the adults, Red goes over to the kids’ zone where he plays with the children and has fun by “acting goofy and jumping around.” His crowd interaction pauses briefly an hour before game time, because this is the time Red uses to “get in the zone.”

“I go into the stadium and just sit there with my iPod and listen to dance music. ‘Jump On It’ is my personal favorite, but I also like ‘The Bunny Hop,’ ‘The Casper Slide’ and ‘Crank Dat Superman,’” Red said.

When Red is sufficiently psyched, he goes down and carries out the explosive task of leading the team out onto the football field/basketball court (depending on the sport). When the game begins, so do Red’s antics and the crowd should beware because when he is on, nobody is safe. He is up in the stands in a flash, first grabbing a lady’s purse and rummaging through its contents while making embarrassing gestures and feigning shock at the items he finds in the handbag. Red puts the purse down and notices a man about to take a drink from a cup and quickly snatches the cup from the thirsty man’s lips, and then he stares at the man’s nachos while rubbing his stomach.

Suddenly Red is standing next to a little boy who gets a quick, playful ear flicking from the energetic character—then he’s off again to inflict light-hearted grief on another unsuspecting fan. Crowd interaction is what he does best and Red keeps the fans going until the last second ticks off the game clock.
When the game is over, he goes home for a quick shower, hits a few after-parties and then back home again where he finally calls it a day. Whew, what a schedule!

It takes an infinite supply of stamina to do what this amazing spirit character does on a regular basis, but Red says that he is just naturally filled with ASU spirit and he loves sports so it really doesn’t take a lot of effort for him.

Red’s best memory of a game day came during last year’s ASU’s game at Memphis State.

“When the Hail Mary pass was thrown, I was right on the side of the field about 30 feet away from the actual catch. As soonas the player caught the ball, I was one of the first ones out on the field,” Red recalled.

There have been some bad moments for Red, too, and for those of you who were wondering— Red actually does have a conscience.

“The worst memory I have is when I spilled a drink on Gov. Mike Beebe at a football game,” Red admitted. “I still don’t know if he noticed it or not. He was wearing a thick coat, and I spilled the drink on his back. There was no reaction so I couldn’t tell if he felt it, but I did feel really bad about that.”

Red also told a story about how the ASU cheerleading squad recently repaid him for some of the mischief he regularly conducts.

“I was messing with a cheerleader and I poured a cup of water down his megaphone,” Red said, “and at the end of the game the cheerleaders got together and dumped water all over me! It was really funny.”

With all that goes on in his working life, fans might wonder what Red does to relax. He listed some of his favorite things to do in his spare time such as keeping up to date with the sports world by watching ESPN, dancing, playing golf and eating. There isn’t much time for a social life for a busy guy like Red, so he doesn’t have a girlfriend.

“There have been a lot of suggestions about the creation of a female version of me, her name would be Scarlet and instead of the dreads sticking up, she’d have curly red and black hair,” Red said. “I think that would be pretty awesome, but for now I’m still a bachelor and a ladies’ man.”

red's favorite things:
• Strawberry Pop Tarts
• Free Food at Tailgates
• The Ladies
• His Hair
• Song: Jump On It
• Mascot Choice: Red Bulls