11 memorable mishaps and moments in Wisconsin sports mascot lore

In an NBA Finals in-game entertainment bit gone wrong, celebrated MMA fighter Conor McGregor was a little too aggressive with the Miami Heat mascot in Game 4, sending the person who plays "Burnie" the mascot to the hospital.

It's no way to treat Burnie in the same month as National Mascot Day, which officially arrives June 17.

There have been some high-profile mascot foibles in Wisconsin sports history as well, some a little more injurious than others. Here are 10 examples.

Obviously, the racing sausages incident in 2003

The jokes were never-ending.

In 2003, Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Randall Simon famously swung a bat to nudge the Italian Sausage as it ran by the third-base dugout during the nightly sausage race at Miller Park. The 19-year-old "Super Team" member, Mandy Block, fell to the ground, bringing another sausage with her, and both runners incurred minor injures.

It became a brouhaha blown quite a bit out of proportion, with Simon handcuffed, questioned and ultimately fined by sheriff's deputies that night. It became water under the bridge very quickly for Block, Simon and everyone directly involved, but it stuck as a signature moment for one of the state's most revered mascot traditions.

A sausage gets stolen in Cedarburg

It wasn't the last time the sausages were involved in a crime.

In 2013, Cedarburg police fined a brother and sister who stole the Italian sausage mascot from a beer and curling fundraiser and went barhopping.

The costume was anonymously returned with some cloak-and-dagger maneuvering, but the duo was identified through social media.

Bango tears his ACL during all-star weekend

Kevin Vanderkolk, the acrobatic life force of Bango, added to a string of Bucks injuries during the 2009 season when he tore his ACL participating in all-star weekend festivities in Phoenix in an awkward fall through the hoop.

Vanderkolk retired from the job in 2014 but talked about the many injuries he'd sustained during the job.

Bango breaks the rim at a Badgers game

Bango was responsible for carnage to something else just last December, when he showed up at the Wisconsin Badgers basketball game against Maryland and rocked the rim a little too much; granted, it only amounted to about a five-minute delay to start the second half.

Marquette briefly goes Gold, to everyone's horror

Marquette University had dropped its "Warriors" moniker in favor of Golden Eagles in 1994 under the request of Father Albert DiUlio, the MU president who felt the mascot wasn't in harmony with the university mission.

In 2004, alumnus Wayne Sanders — vice chairman of the Board of Trustees — reopened the conversation during an MU commencement speech when he offered $2 million (half from himself and half from an unnamed trustee) if Marquette changed its mascot back to Warriors before entering the Big East Conference in 2005.

Though the offer was declined, in 2005, the Board of Trustees abruptly announced it would move on from Golden Eagles and change the name to Marquette Gold. Marquette backers were blindsided by the decision to change the mascot at all, and even more dismayed by the shift to the amorphous Gold.

Alumnus Dwyane Wade, who led Marquette to the Final Four just two years earlier, had an astonished response on ESPNNews. "I gotta call. I gotta call in on that one. I heard they were trying to change it back to Warriors. The Gold? I'm gonna make a call to Marquette after we get off this (interview). I don't know about that one."

Marquette swiftly changed it back to Golden Eagles, which remains in place today.

Milt Mason descends his perch on Bat Day

Bernie Brewer was born in 1970 through semi-organic circumstances, when 69-year-old retired naval aviation engineer Milt Mason finally descended his perch on August 16.

When Bud Selig bought the Seattle Pilots and relocated them to Milwaukee as the Brewers in 1970, it involved a hasty overnight move in the days leading up to the season. With no time to sell season tickets, attendance was sparse for the club in its first year.

Mason, a team employee, was hoisted atop the scoreboard in a 24-foot-by-8-foot mobile home, vowing not come down until attendance topped 40,000 for a game. He instantly became a Milwaukee icon, dressing in lederhosen, pumping up the crowd and cheering on the Crew from his perch. After 41 days, the Brewers drew 40,000 fans on Aug. 16 (helped by a bat giveaway promotion) and, by 1972, "Bernie Brewer" had become an official mascot.

Yes, Mason had air conditioning and indoor plumbing — plus a color TV, refrigerator, exercise machine and a phone line to the Brewers office.

Packy Packer

The Green Bay Packers don't have an official mascot, but that wasn't always the case.

In 1984, the Packers made a number of changes coinciding with the arrival of first-year coach Forrest Gregg, who inherited the reins from fellow Packers legend Bart Starr. One of those tweaks — albeit one that emerged as an idea from NFL Properties and its "Huddles" program — was Packy Packer, a sausage-carrying bearded foam giant.

The experiment seemed kind of doomed from the start, however, and Packy Packer was discontinued in 1986.

During the 1984 exhibition season, the man who portrayed Packy Packer, Bruce Manderscheid, had to leave in the second quarter because of heat exhaustion caused by the heavy costume.

In October, Manderscheid said "most of the people who are Packer fans are short, fat butchers with big feet" on Gregg's weekly television show, which, uh, did not play well.

He also took the place of an unofficial mascot known as Gang Green, Oshkosh native Robert Wagner, who had previously been allowed on the field but was kept off once Packy Packer became a thing. Wagner, who had roamed the stands in green clothes, a green wig and face paint since 1978, was arrested during the fourth quarter of a game against the New York Jets for walking up and down aisles in sections that weren't where his ticketed seat was located.

"They're getting pressure from the top, from the front office," Gang Green said. "I think I do a good service, and I don't believe in their hearts the fans want me to stop."

AJ Dillon sends Elvis from the building

Just last summer, Packers running back AJ Dillon appeared at a celebrity softball game in Kenosha — just one more stop on Dillon's continuous tour of all things Wisconsin — and blew up Elvis the Kenosha Kingfish mascot in a bit that surprisingly didn't yield any injuries like poor Burnie, the Heat mascot.

Trey Meier, a Kenosha native donning the costume that night, lost his head but managed to avoid the hospital.

“I still have this snapshot in my mind," Meier said last year. "I can't see straight (because of the costume), so out of the corner of my eye, I just see AJ Dillon barreling at me."

Brad Beach loses his head

The Milwaukee Wave mascot, Brad Beach, took a kick to the head from Milwaukee Panthers mascot Pounce at 2019 in an annual mascot game, causing the head of the mascot to come dislodged. Not to worry, the other mascots rushed to his aid to preserve his secret identity, as is custom for the mascot code. The moment went viral.

Hank the Dog is dead. Wait, no he's not

In 2014, a wayward dog found its way to the team's spring training complex in Phoenix, prompting the team to adopt him and dub him "Hank," then bring him to Milwaukee. The adorable canine was a nice distraction from the struggles of the 2014 Brewers, who to be fair, still managed an 82-80 record that season.

Then in 2016, an internet rumor began that Hank had died, possibly replaced by an impostor to preserve the good vibes of the adorable new mascot. The Brewers insisted that wasn't true.

In fact, Hank is still quite alive, living with chief operating officer Marti Wronski.

'Teach Me How to Bucky'

It's malpractice to produce any list of mascots and not mention Bucky Badger somewhere. In 2010, "Teach Me How To Bucky" went viral briefly as a spoof of the popular song "Teach Me How To Dougie" by Cali Swag District, a production by Cascia Films on YouTube that spawned a series of T-shirts.

Bucky, a member of the Mascot Hall of Fame in Whiting, Ind., can often be found on social media going back-and-forth with Minnesota mascot Goldy and generally merits distinction as one of the great mascots in college athletics.

In 2004, Bucky was arrested and fined $181 for bodysurfing in the student section during the second quarter of a football game against Penn State.

What else should we add to the list? Contact JR Radcliffe at jradcliffe@gannett.com or on Twitter @JRRadcliffe.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin sports mascots have had many memorable mishaps, moments