Meers had been a mascot since he was young; while a student at Mizzou, he was Truman the Tiger. He then became Fredbird, the St. Louis Cardinals mascot, before taking the Chiefs mascot job in 1989.
As part of his job, Meers interacts with Kansas City Chiefs players and cheerleaders regularly, although his wife of 26 years will not let him hug the cheerleaders anymore. They dressed up together with him as a wolf and his wife as a fox to get married. They have three kids; each one of them brought him to show and tell, and he went trick or treating with them, with him as the wolf and his three kids as the three pigs. One of his best friends on the Chiefs is Dustin Colquitt, long-time punter who has been with the organization the longest of any of their players.
So why is the mascot of the Chiefs a wolf? Because back in the early days of the Chiefs, during the days of the old Municipal Stadium, when Len Dawson and the Chiefs were regularly in contention to win a Super Bowl, the Chiefs had a rabid group of fans who would dress up in wolf costumes.
Meers’ first-ever game as the Chiefs Mascot was not at Arrowhead, but at Olympic Stadium in Germany in 1989. From there, he has traveled all over the world as part of his job, including Tokyo, Jamaica, Canada, England, Hawaii, New York City, Haiti, The Philippines, The Dominican Republic, India, Africa, and Cawker City (KS), which holds the world’s largest ball of twine.
But the favorite part of his job was being able to get into the schools and meet kids and give talks to them. He told them that they make choices every day, and every choice they make defines who they are. He said the people who were successful in life were usually the ones who were the most positive.
He said that the secret to being married for 26 years was in being a buzzard or a bee. Buzzards circle around looking for dead animals to feast on. Bees bring back honey every day to help the colony grow. “The home is much happier when I act like a bee than when I act like a buzzard,” he said. “It’s easy to look for the good things in people.”
He said that people who succeed in life take their character seriously, especially the football players who he has interacted with over his 30 years of being the Chief’s mascot. Character starts with how one acts when nobody else is looking. “Sometimes, it means swimming against the current,” he said. “Bad company corrupts good character.” He told the kids to choose their friends carefully.
Fall, when the Chiefs are in the middle of their season, is the busiest time of the year for Meers. For instance, in October, he made 107 appearances to various groups. On Wednesday, he went to South Harrison, Worth County, and North Harrison. Last Tuesday, he went to five schools out in Kansas.
Some mascots, like Bobby Bearcat, are famously secretive about the person inside the suit. But Meers was open about what it was like to wear the big furry suit. He has 8-10 different suits, complete with shoes consisting of two sneakers and size 85 pants. He has some for summer, which are a lot cooler, since it gets hot and humid inside such suits, even during winter. He has others for winter. He gets scratched around the neck a lot by fans, which is bad, because he looks through his neck to see. “If I’m scratching at my neck, I’m not trying to get the fleas off, I’m trying to see,” he said.
The student bodies of both Worth County and North Harrison were sporting unusual colors for their schools – a sea of red. K.C. Wolf got lots of questions about when star quarterback Patrick Mahomes would be back; he didn’t know any more than anyone else did. He was asked about Tyreek Hill, who he said was as fast as advertised.
So what about fans of other schools? Cole, a 5th grader at Worth County, wore his Cam Newton shirt to the occasion; Meers took it in good humor and brought him up and led him be the Chiefs Mascot for a few minutes. Cole obviously already had Meers’ advice about swimming against the current down pat. Two of Meers’ best friends are the Texans’ mascot and the Panthers’ mascot. All the NFL mascots get together every year for an annual Mascot Convention in Canada.
K.C. Wolf has been mistaken for Chuck E. Cheese before. His hobbies, if one goes by the video played to the kids at both schools, include Kung Fu, performing crazy stunts at football games, skiing, driving on his UTV and checking out the tailgating in the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot before games, and tackling Broncos and Raiders football players.
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