00:00John Ruth is the executive director of the UM Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, but maybe more importantly, he was one of the greatest mascots in the history of sports.
00:11Actually, he's been a number of the greatest mascots in the history of sports, and he's been on the show a number of times.
00:19He also has season tickets to the Masters, but that's another story.
00:21So, this Sunday night at Hard Rock Stadium, Sebastian the Ibis, made famous by John Ruth, will be inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame.
00:33Now, I don't admittedly follow the Mascot Hall of Fame too much.
00:38Has Sebastian been snubbed for a long time? Is this long overdue?
00:44Well, I think it's long overdue.
00:45He has been up a couple of times and been voted on.
00:51One year, actually, I had Kaki, Sebastian the Ibis, and Billy the Marlin all up for nomination, and unfortunately, none of them made it.
01:00But I do have today, I have a Hockman Crowder et al. show.
01:10What's the word I'm looking for?
01:11So, that's the jacket. This is the grand, the world premiere of the Sebastian Diago's Mascot Hall of Fame jacket that will be presented to him Saturday night at halftime.
01:23What is that on the pocket there?
01:26Well, it's the Mascot Hall of Fame logo.
01:28Okay, it looked like Cookie Monster to me.
01:32The Mascot Hall of Fame has its own mascot. It's called Reggie, which is named after Raymond Entertainment Group, Dave Raymond.
01:39Where is the Mascot Hall of Fame located?
01:42Well, unfortunately, now it's only online.
01:44They had a facility in Whiting, Indiana, but some oil company bought out the building and the property, and they had to close.
01:53So, they're looking for somebody to win the Powerball and build a building somewhere.
01:57Oh, how much space do they need?
01:59I could probably put it somewhere like, I don't know, maybe Ryan at Funky Buddha has in the Barrel Room.
02:05What if we turn that into the Barrel Room slash Mascot Hall of Fame?
02:08That could work.
02:09That could work.
02:10Just spitballing.
02:11Anything could happen.
02:12So, is Cocky the Gamecock in the Mascot Hall of Fame?
02:17Nope.
02:17Cocky is not in, and neither is Billy the Marlin.
02:20Interesting.
02:21But, yeah, Saturday night at halftime, keep your seats.
02:25Sunday night.
02:25Don't go to the wrong night.
02:27Yes.
02:27I'm so used to Saturday.
02:28But I actually did a video that is going to introduce the ceremony.
02:34You'll see up on the big Jumbotron, scare the crap out of the kids.
02:38But we have actually 20 former Sebastians coming back.
02:43Wow.
02:44We'll all be out on the field, and Sebastian will be given his jacket.
02:48Reggie, the mascot of the Mascot Hall of Fame, will be there.
02:52And so, yeah, it's going to be kind of a fun ceremony.
02:55John, what are the judges judging upon?
02:57Because way back when you were Sebastian, like, everybody knew the cane,
03:02the crazy cane that turns his beast.
03:04Who is in the damn Mascot Hall of Fame before Sebastian?
03:08Well, go to mascothalloffame.com, and you can see.
03:11But, no, there's a lot of, you know, obviously the chicken.
03:14And actually, this year, Sebastian is the only college mascot.
03:18There are four mascots, one from the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL.
03:25Is that all four?
03:26Whatever the four major leagues are.
03:28And so, it's kind of an honor this year that he's the only college mascot.
03:32There are other college mascots that have been inducted in the past.
03:36And Albert's not there, sorry.
03:38Alberta actually was up a couple of years ago.
03:42Alberta?
03:43Hey, man, Alberta has no energy.
03:46Albert's doing backflips.
03:47Alberta's standing there with the bow in her head.
03:49I'm not a fan of Alberta.
03:54It's really cool, though.
03:56This is, like I say, long overdue.
03:58Now, do you think Sebastian maybe didn't get in the first couple of times
04:04because of his arrest record, which is your fault?
04:07He was detained.
04:09He was arrested.
04:10Right.
04:10Because Crowder, you know, famously fell from the first round to the third round
04:14based on, you know, the thought that he might be a problem.
04:17Could you have tainted Sebastian's opportunity of getting in the mascot
04:22Hall of Fame earlier had you not been detained in Tallahassee?
04:25I hope not.
04:26But, you know, obviously that's an iconic photo,
04:29which for those who are watching on YouTube can see.
04:33Ah, look at that.
04:34That is such a great moment.
04:35Is that your greatest moment as a mascot?
04:37Because, again, you've played a number of mascots.
04:40Is that the greatest moment?
04:42Well, probably the most infamous.
04:44Well, of course, then there was opening day of 97 when the guy parachuting in
04:48lost Billy the Marlin's head.
04:51That got coverage on ESPN.
04:53Dan Patrick would open up the Marlin segment every night with,
04:56bring me the head of Billy the Marlin.
04:59We played that up for a couple of months.
05:02But, yeah, no, I've had some.
05:04And, of course, at Miami Maniac, we had the Maniac wedding,
05:06which ESPN covered for 13 minutes.
05:11And I'm in Kenai, Alaska, in the middle of nowhere.
05:14Put my arm around, as the Maniac, put my arm around some girl in the stands
05:17and this little kid from three or four rows back goes,
05:19Hey, Maniac, I'm going to tell your wife I saw your wedding.
05:23Kenai, Alaska, how did they say that?
05:27Yeah, Alberta would tighten up Albert.
05:29Well, I don't think Alberta was around when I was doing Sebastian.
05:37I might have hit on her a couple of times.
05:40I don't know.
05:41Is it possible for Sebastian in Alberta to mate?
05:46I don't even know if it's possible.
05:47I watch.
05:49Well, you know, you go into Everglades and you see these birds sitting on the back
05:53of alligators, you know, just sitting there.
05:55Yeah.
05:56I don't know what to do.
05:57Anything could happen.
05:58Right time, right moment.
05:59I don't count anything out.
06:02That was my only hope in college.
06:04Let's just give it a wing and a prayer.
06:09See if this pans out to anything.
06:10Thursday night at Tony Robbins.
06:12You never know what you're going home with.
06:14Brooks Reed working his magic on the keyboard.
06:16I mean, anything can happen.
06:18You get that onion loaf.
06:19You never know what's going to go on.
06:20So tell everybody again, John Ruth, who played Sebastian the Ibis back when I was going to
06:25UM in 87 to 91.
06:29Sunday night, Hard Rock Stadium, Sebastian the Ibis goes into the mascot Hall of Fame.
06:34This is a halftime presentation?
06:36Halftime ceremony.
06:37So keep your seats at halftime.
06:39It'll be the first thing before the band of the hour.
06:42Very cool.
06:43It'll be a cool, cool little thing.
06:45I imagine you're excited and we congratulate you.
06:49Obviously, this is maybe the first of a few that'll that'll be going in someday.
06:54Can't wait for Freddy the Flamingo to get in from Hialeah.
07:00John, I go.
07:01I've been doing this training camp tour with the podcast.
07:04I'm on and the mascots come up and they give they give you five.
07:09And some of them I'll be like, hey, man, what's going on?
07:10And you hear this deep voice or some of them are women there.
07:14Hey, how you doing?
07:14Oh, big fan.
07:15Are you here?
07:16Oh, what's up, brother?
07:17And some of them ignore the hell out of you.
07:20Is there any rules of speaking as the mascot?
07:24Well, I mean, you're really not supposed to.
07:26But obviously, you know, I would do it on the sidelines at the Orange Bowl.
07:29You know, I got to know some of the cops.
07:31So, you know, always looking for protection.
07:33And then again, not only protection, but sometimes they needed to take me away.
07:42You know, you just sometimes you talk to some of the people on the sidelines.
07:45Yeah.
07:45And or the celebrities like yourself, you know, but you're not supposed to.
07:51At least we have an affect, though, an affect on your voice.
07:54Like, did you have a special Sebastian voice, a special Billy the Marlin voice?
07:57I really didn't.
07:59No, I mean, I would just talk to, you know, I wouldn't talk most 99% of the time.
08:02But like, if I needed somebody to help me with something, I'd walk over and go, hey, you know, can you help me with this?
08:06Or that guy over there, you know, cop, that guy's harassing me.
08:09Can you do something?
08:11But the one time, the only time that the Miami maniac spoke was at his wedding.
08:15And he only had two words, and he just went, I do!
08:21Really?
08:22That was the maniac voice at the wedding?
08:25Yeah, that was it.
08:26And it hurts my throat every time I do that.
08:29Interesting choice for the Miami maniac.
08:31You had to come up with something.
08:33But we actually, now that I think about it, we did a video back in the 80s for the Golden Canes when they first started them in 85, I believe it was.
08:42And so they had me as Sebastian, you know, introducing different sports and things as well, just kind of doing a goofy voice like this with Sebastian in the beak bouncing around, you know.
08:52And I don't know whatever happened to that video, but I hate to see it nowadays because 1980s technology, it was pretty rough.
09:01Trying to figure out, like, what would, what should Sebastian's voice be?
09:06Well, you know, I wore the chest protector.
09:08I was called kind of my inner tube that pumped up the, you know, that's what the two costumes felt different.
09:14The maniac hung off my shoulders and kind of doop, doop, doop, doop, doop.
09:17And the, but the, I was, had that chest protector, so I felt tough.
09:20And so, I mean, I think Sebastian should have a tough, rough voice.
09:23Because I, like, should it sound more like Howard Schnellenberger or more like Michael Irvin?
09:30Good question.
09:31Maybe a combination of the two.
09:33Yeah, I don't know.
09:34It needs like a, yeah, I can't, as I'm spitballing here thinking about it.
09:38It's still a bird.
09:40He can't be, he can't have a worse, worse Whitaker voice.
09:44He's a bird.
09:44A bird?
09:46A bird.
09:47You're calling Sebastian the Ibis just a bird.
09:50Sebastian the Ibis smoked a pipe, had, had scars on his face back in the, back in the day.
09:57I mean, Sebastian the Ibis was a man, was a hurricane.
10:02That's why he's going, we don't need to hear about Albert and Alberta, who were just whatever they were.
10:09No one even knows what they are.
10:11Sebastian was more than just a bird.
10:13Don't, don't let him do that to you, John.
10:15It's unfortunate.
10:16Yeah, unfortunate.
10:16John Ruth and all the Sebastian, what's the plural of Ibis?
10:22I buy?
10:23All the Sebastian and the I buy.
10:24I buy.
10:27Hard Rock Stadium.
10:29Sunday night, the mascot Hall of Fame induction.
10:33You see the jacket behind John Ruth.
10:36So Sebastian will wear that jacket on Sunday night?
10:39He will be presented the jacket.
10:40I believe he may even get a ring.
10:42I'm not sure, but.
10:43Wow.
10:43Very cool.
10:44So it'll happen at halftime of the Canes Notre Dame game.
10:47And yeah, you can, you can watch it if you're there.
10:51Don't leave your seats at halftime, unless you're going to Cracked to get some delicious food.
10:56Crowder's restaurant at the stadium.
10:58That would be the only excuse to miss out on the, on the halftime.
11:03I'll have to try it out after the ceremony.
11:05Go there as Sebastian the Ibis in the jacket.
11:10John, we appreciate your time.
11:12Congrats and have fun on Sunday night.
11:15Appreciate it.
11:15Always great talking to you.
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