Mascots Get Cold Reception From Critics

The early reviews are in for the newest mascots off the Olympic assembly line for the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

Mascot love? Not quite.

The SportsBusiness Journal took one look at Neve, a female snowball, and the male ice cube Gliz and called them “this uninspiring pair of illegitimate Gumby spawn.”

An editorial suggested that the International Olympic Committee take more control of the mascot-making process. But, until then, the magazine gives a thumbs down to the pair, especially the blue-clad Gliz, which it says “looks more like one of the simple figures that populated pop artist Keith Haring’s works, except his head is a Chiclet with all the color sucked off.”

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Trivia question: What was the Olympic mascot for the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona?

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Mascot history: The first officially named Olympic mascot, for the 1972 Munich Games, was a youthful-looking dog, a dachshund known as Waldi, wearing a multi-colored outfit.

There was an unofficial mascot for the 1968 Winter Games, Schuss, a cartoonish character with a red head, riding on skis.

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Skirting issues: Actor Austin Nichols, who appeared in the movie “Wimbledon,” said he had no tennis-playing experience in his background. Nichols trained for the role with former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash, and joked that he already owned one piece of sports apparel.

“I actually have a skirt,” he told GQ magazine. “I went on vacation and bought one just to wear while walking around the beach. Just like a towel.”

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Reality check: The best critics of the new football movie “Friday Night Lights” are obvious ones.

Football players, of course.

North Carolina center Jason Brown stopped short of saying it was realistic but said he liked the movie. He also told Freedom News Service about his favorite film. “Watching tape of myself,” he said, laughing.

Another former football player, movie critic Richard Roeper, said in an audio review that he played under Friday night lights a long time ago, adding: “This movie gets it all right.”

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Extra credit: It isn’t enough that 17-year-old Erin Feehan-Nelson teaches figure skating, among many other things, in her spare time. She is running for mayor of the small Minnesota town St. Mary’s Point (pop. 350) even though she can’t vote or hold office.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press broke the story, and since then Feehan-Nelson has been all over the place, appearing on CNN on Thursday. Her younger sister, 8-year-old Olivia, may have had the best line, Erin told the newspaper: “She wants to come [to city council meetings] and say, ‘Erin, your room is not clean.’ ”

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Trivia answer: Cobi, the dog. A Spanish artist, Javier Mariscal, created the mascot.

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And finally: Fresno State football Coach Pat Hill, on the slowdown of phone calls from the national media after the previously unbeaten Bulldogs lost, 28-21, to Louisiana Tech last Saturday: “Once you lose, they are gone. That’s fine, though. I don’t want to answer phone calls all of the time, but when you’re winning, everyone wants to know more.”