Introducing, the Mascot Hall of Fame

Every year Major League Baseball, the NFL, the NBA, and pretty much all other professional sports, induct nominees into their Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is the cream of the crop, the greatest players of all-time.

In 2005 a man by the name of David Raymond decided that somebody else deserved the opportunity to be inducted to a Hall of Fame. These people work their butts of to entertain the fans as much as the players do, if not more. I'm talking of course about the mascots and David Raymond is none other than the original Phillie Phanatic.

In 2005 David Raymond started a Hall of Fame that would recognize the best mascots in the sports world. Every year there are new inductees into the Mascot Hall of Fame. In 2005 the first class of was all mascots from professional teams but the following year it was decided to have a class of mascots from professional sports teams and a class for mascots from college sports teams.

Each year there is a nomination process for the mascots and an Executive Committee chooses six finalists. There is then a vote to find the winner and the vote includes an online fan poll that counts for a certain percentage of the vote.

The inaugural class in the Mascot Hall of Fame from 2005 consisted of the Phoenix Suns Gorilla, the San Diego Chicken and Raymond's former alias, the Phillie Phanatic.

In 2006 the mascots from professional teams that were inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame were Clutch from the Houston Rockets, K. C. Wolf from the Kansas City Chiefs and the Utah Jazz's bear.

The year 2006 was also the inaugural year for the college mascot wing of the Mascot Hall of Fame. The Inaugural crop of mascots from college teams included Aubie from the Auburn Tigers, YouDee from Delaware and Bucky Badger from Wisconsin.

The 2007 class saw two more mascots from professional teams and three mascots from college teams get inducted. The two pro mascots inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2007 were Mr. Met and the San Antonio Spurs' coyote. The inductees for the college mascot wing of the Mascot Hall of Fame were Lil' Red from Nebraska, Brutus Buckeye of the Ohio State Buckeyes and Big Red of Western Kentucky.