Elizabeth Stevens
CONTRIBUTOR
University of Nebraska at Omaha’s faithful mascot, Durango, is always there to breathe energy and school spirit into any UNO event. Whether he is pumping his arms, cheering with the crowd or taking pictures with kids, he is always ready to support the Maverick community.
Durango has been the ringleader of student spirit for many years, but what students see on game day only scratches the surface of what he does during a game.
Around 5 p.m. Durango packs his bag for the game.
“I’ll generally throw in a granola bar for a snack because it is a long night,” Durango said, “a water bottle or two [and] some body mist because I get pretty sweaty and stinky.”
Durango attends a marketing meeting at 5:30 p.m. During this meeting, they cover game marketing promotions, intermission activities and media time outs.
“The event coordinator tells me where I am supposed to go and what I should do for different marketing promotions,” Durango said. “After all the promotions are done, I get to have fun with the crowd.”
Around 5:45 p.m. Durango takes a few moments to finish getting ready for the game. He slips on his game jersey and hockey pants, and then tries to get his head in the game.
Once Durango is ready, he heads out to the concourse to greet all of the Maverick fans, take pictures with people and get the audience pumped before the game.
“When walking around I hi-five people and take pictures. That is my time to get pumped up,” Durango said. “I get excited. I get ready to go.”
Just before the game starts, Durango heads back to his dressing room to put on his skates. He then makes his way onto the ice with the UNO hockey team.
When the game starts, he does marketing promotions and gets the crowd excited and ready to cheer.
“I love to see how excited people get,” Durango said. “The little kids get super excited.”
During the intermissions, Durango puts his skates back on and heads out to the ice for a marketing promotion.
“We’ve done cow races,” Durango said, “and there were people out on the ice with me dressed in cow ‘onesies.’ We’ve also had photo booths.”
Durango also finds time to visit with the crowd.
“I take a period that we don’t have any marketing on and I go walk around the suites and say hi to those people,” Durango said.
Once the game is over, Durango heads out to the concourse to wave goodbye to all the Maverick fans.
“I’ll hang out, and families will want pictures on their way out and people give hi-fives,” Durango said.
Durango usually calls it a night around 10 p.m. He goes home, takes a shower and crawls in bed.
Hockey season started at the beginning of October, so there are still plenty of chances to make it to a game and cheer with Durango. For further game information, visit omavs.com.
“Cheer loudly, feel free to take pictures and hi-five me,” Durango said. “GO MAVS!
