THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606070058
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: 83 lines
THE CHICAGO BULLS may have Michael Jordan, the greatest player ever to play the game, but the Seattle Supersonics have the greatest mascot in the National Basketball Association.
Yes, we are talking Sasquatch here. Sasquatch what? Just tune in your TV when the NBA finals series shifts to Key Arena on Sunday and watch for that wild thang swinging down a rope from the ceiling at the beginning of the game.
It's Sasquatch: a mascot who looks like a cross between a long-haired gorilla and a Jim Henson muppet.
The more common name for a Sasquatch is Bigfoot. Sasquatches have been sighted in the Pacific Northwest for close to 200 years.
From Canada to California, there have been hundreds of sightings of Sasquatches, which are believed to be similar to the Yeti, the Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas.
The deeply imprinted footprints attributed to the Sasquatch are some 4 to 7 inches wide and from 12 to 17 inches long. This has led scientists to conclude that - if the footprints are not a hoax - the hulking creature who made them probably weighs 800 pounds or more.
And is maybe 8 feet tall.
While visiting my son in Yakima, Wash., I decided to go on a Sasquatch hunt after learning that the only photographic evidence of a Bigfoot was made by a Yakima resident - Roger Peterson - in the 1960s.
Peterson made plaster casts of the beast's huge footprints and contended until his death that the photograph he had taken of the creature was genuine.
I examined a copy of the photograph. It shows a creature scurrying away from the camera, stooped but upright, near a fallen tree, looking back. The creature in the photo resembled a gorilla with a woman's face. The face registered surprise, possibly alarm.
Last Saturday, my son and I set out to hunt the Sasquatch, driving a twisting road up toward Chinook Pass in the Cascades.
I was armed with a wealth of information about the Bigfoot. Not all of it helpful. Some believe the creature is harmless. Others say it should be shot on sight.
Canadian John Green, a serious searcher for the Sasquatch, has said: ``Gun it down, cut off a piece you can carry and get out of there.''
As our expedition's leader, I decided that we'd treat the beast as gently as possible if we caught it. Then, I figured, we'd use a horse collar and a rope to lead it back to civilization.
I had to twist my son's arm to get him involved in the project. ``You carry the horse collar, rope and our supplies in your backpack,'' I explained. ``And I'll carry the bait in mine.''
We left the car behind and, following a hand-held compass, worked our way through the mantle of snow that still lingered at that elevation, toward a slope where Bigfoot had been sighted in the 1990s by mushroom pickers.
My son Larry - who carried the 30-pound horse collar strapped to his backpack - moved grudgingly ahead of me through the forest of Douglas firs towering a hundred feet above our heads.
We were looking for Bigfoot prints in the snow, sniffing the air for the beast's randy scent, which is said to be so strong and forbidding that dogs will not pursue it.
At about 4 o'clock, we crossed a small stream and paused about 100 yards beyond, after hearing grunts and the sound of rustling underbrush in the woods directly ahead of us.
``What do we do now?'' Larry asked.
``We'll hide behind these big rocks in the stream so that we can surprise him when he comes out of the woods,'' I replied. ``But first we have to put out the bait.''
``What's the bait?''
``Hostess Twinkies,'' I explained. ``I brought a dozen along.'' I placed the Twinkies on the trunk of a fallen tree.
We waited and waited but no Sasquatch appeared. Near sunset we abandoned the hunt and headed to the car. ``That sound we heard was probably a bear anyhow,'' Larry said, eager to get home.
He slid behind the wheel of the car and we headed back toward Yakima.
``Mighta had the wrong bait,'' I said. ``The thang looks like a gorilla. Maybe we should have brought some bananas.''
He let the remark hang in the air for about 10 seconds before replying, turning, with his hands on the wheel, giving me his best long and hard look.
``Dad . . . you are bananas,'' he said.
Guess he was right. ILLUSTRATION: Color AP photo
Seattle SuperSonics mascot Sasquatch leads the crowd in a cheer
during an NBA game. by CNB