Rowdy is the official

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fic ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divis ...

Development and early years

Rowdy was originally developed by NFL Properties in the early 1990s as a cowboy/ football player character named "Big D" who was part of the Team NFL Heroes league-wide mascot program. Merchandise showing an early version of Rowdy with his name listed as Big D was marketed to children and teenagers during the

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

NFL seasons. Big D made public appearances at Cowboys games and other events as early as

but wasn't adopted by the Cowboys as their official mascot until 1996 after his name was changed to Rowdy and adjustments to his character design had been made.

Character design and appearance

Rowdy wears a Dallas Cowboys' football uniform combined with classic western attire including an oversized

cowboy hat The cowboy hat is a high-crowned, wide-brimmed hat best known as the defining piece of attire for the North American cowboy. Today it is worn by many people, and is particularly associated with ranch workers in the western and southern United ...

chaps Chaps ( or ) are sturdy coverings for the legs consisting of leggings and a belt. They are buckled on over trousers with the chaps' integrated belt, but unlike trousers, they have no seat (the term "assless chaps" is a Tautology (language), taut ...

, and

cowboy boots Cowboy boots are a specific style of riding boot, historically worn by cowboys. They have a high heel that is traditionally made of stacked leather, rounded to pointed toe, high shaft, and, traditionally, no lacing. Cowboy boots are normally mad ...

. His jersey number is 00 (pronounced "double zero").

Role as mascot

Rowdy has been the Cowboys' official mascot since

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

. His tenure overlapped with that of

Crazy Ray Wilford Jones (January 22, 1931 – March 17, 2007), better known as Crazy Ray, was the unofficial mascot of the Dallas Cowboys. By some accounts, he was also the team's original mascot, who attended almost every home game since the team's inceptio ...

who was the unofficial mascot of the Cowboys from

1962 Events January * January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand. * January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism. * January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wo ...

until his death in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

. As the Ambassador of the Dallas Cowboys, Rowdy's job includes, but is not limited to creating game day enthusiasm at AT&T Stadium. He does this at home games by driving in on his four-wheeler, tossing t-shirts into the stands, using signs like "Let's Go Cowboys," and mocking the opponents. Rowdy participates at every home game and selected away games. In 2015, Rowdy was named "Most Hated NFL Mascot" by

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice ...

Community involvement

Rowdy is involved with, takes part in, and/or makes appearances at the following: the Susan G. Komen

Race for the Cure Susan G. Komen (formerly known as Susan G. Komen for the Cure; originally as The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation; often simply as Komen) is a breast cancer organization in the United States. Komen focuses on patient navigation and advo ...

The Salvation Army The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organisation headquartered in London, England. The organisation reports a worldwide membership of over 1.7million, comprising soldiers, officers and adherents col ...

, The Rise School of Dallas, the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 1 ...

, retirement centers, hospitals, schools, birthday parties, grand openings, Minor League Baseball games around the country, conventions, parades, grocery store promotions,

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Southwest Division. The ...

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games, weddings, and community events. He has even been to the

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

at least three times: in

before being adopted by the Cowboys as their official mascot, and in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

and

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

. He has also taken part in televised events, including

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's ''Alumni Beach Bowl'',

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''Battle of the Gridiron'' and the Special Olympics.

Training camp promotions

At Cowboys training camp Rowdy can be found playing with kids at Rowdy's Kid Zone. He takes the kids through obstacle courses and has them chant for their favorite Cowboys player during practice. Kids also visit the inflatable Cowboys Experience, which includes a bouncy house, slide, football toss, and field goal kick. Rowdy is known for squirting the kids with water guns, and anyone else who steps in his way like players, coaches, TV crews, and especially fans that come out to watch the Cowboys practice at camp. This is welcomed by fans when the outside temperature is 100 plus degrees.

Mascot convention participation

Rowdy represents the Cowboys each year in selected cities for the annual mascot convention. At this event the NFL mascots compare and share ideas to help continue mascot antics and ways to market mascot awareness.

References

External links

Dallas Cowboys bio
{{NFL mascots Dallas Cowboys National Football League mascots