WHITING, IN.—-Life is like a mascot.
You have to look beneath the surface.
The new Mascot Hall of Fame, 1851 Front St, in Whiting is ripe with punchlines. Right off the bat, it’s a mascot museum for North American professional and collegiate sports, with more than a hundred items.
And it is on the industrial shores of Lake Michigan in Whiting (pop. 4, 900), two miles from the south side of Chicago. Whiting hosts an annual Pierogi Fest at the end of July. Local ladies parade around in babushkas and housecoats and there are mascots Mr. Pierogi and Miss Paczki.
The museum’s executive director is Orestes Hernandez. His parents fled [...]
Former NBA Commissioner David Stern (L) and Joe Lee (Courtesy of Charles E. Newman)
Any passionate Chicago Bulls fan would recognize the forever young looking African-American passing out towels and soaking up blood, sweat and tears behind the home bench. I saw this gentleman as a fan in the 1970s and he was in the house in 1990 when I covered the Bulls for the Chicago Sun-Times.
In the early 1990s I had a chance to talk to Joe Lee, who was the Bulls equipment man since the franchise’s birth in 1966.
Wanting to sit down with Joe Lee is what made me “different” in [...]
