ESPN once said Cosmo (BYU's mascot) was probably the most athletic mascot in college basketball! And, being Cosmo today is much trickier than being Cosmo during my BYU years.
As the story goes, in 1997 Cosmo was hunting down Red Trail Hawk (the UofU mascot) and fell 100 feet in Rock Canyon! His serious injuries required "cosmotic surgery" which included a reduction in Cosmo's head size. These surgeries happen to allow Cosmo more visibility, better range of motion, and gymnastic ability for more daring stunts. Clever!
The Cosmo in my day rode around on a unicycle and engaged the crowd in cheers. But, the 2010 Cosmo has a "Cosmobile," he rides motorcycles, does flips, walks on stilts, etc. As Cosmo states: "The crowd always wants to see crazier things."
There's even an official Team Cosmo to assist Cosco; since he is busy with over 130 appearances every year. Cosmo's identity is always top-secret until the end of the school year.
Besides meeting Cosmo on Friday night we saw him again Saturday at the BYU/Wyoming Football game. Finally, BYU ends their losing streak! Cosmo didn't show up for the BYU Annual Alumni Run in the morning. But we did. We had to defend our victories from last year's 5K race.
We all ended up with medals but our overall Team Knudsen appearance wasn't a complete shut out like last year (recalled in my bragadocious blog on 9/29/09).
This year Paige took 1st place in her age group but 2nd place overall woman (beaten by a woman with a 3:15 St. George Marathon time, so that is serious competition). Brent and Paige entered the Father/Daughter division and took 1st place but Brent was 3rd place in his age group. Miraculously, I retained my 1st place title (2 years running - literally and figuratively - ha!) for the 50 and older division. Maybe those darn track workouts are going to pay off!
