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Credit: Nick Romanenko
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The Scarlet Knight is as well-known as the best football or basketball players, and despite some great performances at Rutgers games, his true identity remains anonymous to all but a few on the Rutgers campus.
The university’s mascot for more than a half-century, the Scarlet Knight took over from the rooster Chanticleer in 1955. The Knight has undergone several metamorphoses in his cheerleading career: as a real person on horseback, a short-lived mechanical horse and rider, and now as the diminutive, but challenging, figure with a big head and an oversized sword.
While his appearance represents the male gender, “he” is the Scarlet Knight mascot for both men’s and women’s sports, although the real people inside the Scarlet Knight – its current inhabitants are Ken Kolanko and Camille Shandle – are male and female. Kolanko, a Rutgers College junior, and Shandle, a Rutgers College senior, spend considerable time creating and carrying out the mascot’s antics at football games, men’s and women’s home basketball games and other athletic events when requested by individual sports departments.
Kolanko and Shandle are also called upon for other appearances by sports marketing, alumni departments and numerous community groups outside of Rutgers. The two ply their trade unheralded, by choice – they volunteered for their positions – and try to guard their identities to some extent.
While they don’t object to people knowing they are the mascot, they are careful not to reveal their identity while on the job, nor do they boast about it around campus. Being around young children prompts a serious secret-identity mode, and they take great care not to speak or remove the headpiece in public. “It would be like seeing Santa without his beard,” Kolanko says.
Before the Scarlet Knight, the Chanticleer held forth at Rutgers games. A rooster, it nevertheless looked like a chicken, and often found itself the target of hoots, howls and crowing from opposing fans every time Rutgers was losing. By 1955, a change was needed, and students came up with the Knight, which for several years was a real person dressed as a helmeted, caped and plumed knight who rode a real steed up and down the sidelines. Since 1983, the solitary figure on foot has prevailed.
Being the Scarlet Knight is a labor of love for those who don the costume, although both students recalled that each got the job in a very casual way. Shandle, on a whim, answered an ad in the Daily Targum and was only one of two people who showed up for a tryout. Kolanko took over last year from his roommate Chris Burger, who is spending his senior year hitting the books and looking for a job.
The pair is happy to split mascot chores, which, they say, take up considerable time. Despite the fact that it is personally rewarding, both admit they would welcome additional students to volunteer for the job, although people don’t seem to be lining up for the task. While the job is voluntary, the students receive a modest yearly stipend toward their academic textbooks and per diem expenses when they travel to away football games.
For Shandle, who also participates in Brazilian martial arts and a student dance club, being the mascot allows her to be “different,” the biology major says. “I like doing things out of the ordinary, and even if people don’t know it’s me, it kind of sets me apart. It’s something special that I do at Rutgers. After I leave, I’m going to be really proud of it.”
Kolanko, who majors in business management, says he simply loves Rutgers and does it for that reason. His loyalty also extends to serving as a Scarlet Key Society tour guide and helping out with Rutgers College student orientation.
Both spoke of the physical demands of the job: having to communicate and lead cheers solely through movement while wearing a very hot suit. Shandle recalls her first time at an early-season football game when the temperature on the field must have been 100 degrees. “I went out there, took five steps and started panting.”
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