Chris Thompson


Chris Thompson ’01 said performing as such a larger- than-life character helped shape him into the extro- verted introvert he is today. In 1999 the Eagles were a few games into the bas- ketball season and no one


Big Stuff pleases the crowd wherever he goes.


Children flock to him for a hug, and adults give him a high five. He shows up at games, university and community events, makes appearances with other mascots, and cheers on the Eagles as the university’s biggest hype man. Big Stuff not only has witnessed many institutional milestones, but the #1 Eagle also embodies the resilient spirit of the Winthrop community.


Only a special person can bring this magical feathered friend to life, and Big Stuff’s personality reflects whoever wears the costume. Read on as some of the former students who took on Big Stuff duties recap their adventures as Winthrop’s beloved mascot.


Clay Summers


Rock Hill resident Clay Sum- mers ’93 wore the costume from 1990-93.


“I can remember putting on the suit for the first time, and I fell in love with being Big Stuff,” said Summers, who


works in medical sales. “When I went to cheer- leading camp as a cheerleader, I was actually thinking I would rather be a mascot, because it seemed to be more fun and exciting.”


His girlfriend, now his wife, Stacey Thomas Sum- mers ’94, ’97, was a cheerleader at the time.


During his second year, he attended a mascot camp at Rutgers with 150+ college mascots. “It was a blast to learn all the details like how to walk properly in the suit to make it more animat- ed; how to wave and make big movements so they look normal to the people outside the suit; and how not to talk in the suit and be discreet,” Summers said.


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During his senior year, he was ranked 17th out of 100+ mascots in the country. “We had to turn in a 2-minute tape of things we did throughout the year with music put to it,” Summers said.


To this day, some friends call him Big Stuff.


A year after he graduated, Summers borrowed the suit for a serious moment. While out to dinner with his girlfriend of seven years, he changed in the bathroom and walked out in the Big Stuff costume and proposed. “She said she should have known then to run away,” he said, but they’re still together after 30 years of marriage, three children and a grandson.


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had stepped up to be Big Stuff. Thompson was sitting a few rows behind former Athletic Direc- tor Tom Hickman at a game and shouted, “Hey, Tom! What do we have to do to get a mascot around here?”


Hickman said “Follow me!” and led Thompson to the locker room, showed him the costume and said, “Have fun!”


After an NCAA tournament game in Dayton, Ohio, one of the radio guys asked Thompson at the hotel if he could borrow the mascot head. “I saw him in the hotel lobby the next morning, and he had no idea where it was. We looked all


over the hotel with no luck,” said Thompson, who now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he is a senior marketing communications manager.


He feared having to tell the athletic department staff that he’d lost the head. “As we were walk- ing toward the bus, we spotted an unusually large pile of sheets outside a room,” Thompson recalled. “Inside was the mascot head. It had certainly been a surprise for the housekeeper cleaning the room!”


During his senior year, Thompson was both the mascot and a member of the Homecoming court. “I didn’t want the game to be left without a mas- cot while I changed before halftime, so I decided to reveal myself during the Homecoming court presentation,” Thompson said. “I ran off the court at the half, joined the lineup of court honorees, and walked out on the court, removing the head at the edge of the court. The crowd went wild! It was certainly the highlight of my time as the mascot!”

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