Air Force’s Falcon Mascot Goes Missing During Independence Bowl

Live animal mascots are fairly common in college sports, most notably Bevo from the University of Texas or Ralphie from Colorado. Air Force is another school that has a live mascot: a falcon, who decided to fly the coop at the Independence Bowl.

Prior to home games the falcon flies into the stadium and lands on the arm of the Air Force falconer. However, today the falcon never flew into the stadium. There were a few camera shots where the falcon was seen hovering on the cusp of the stadium, but it never made its way inside. That image was the last anyone saw of the falcon for awhile.

Then word got out during the television broadcast that the falcon was missing. Twitter took over, as it tends to do, and the jokes started rolling in about the missing bird.

One of the best was from Jerry Palm:

The falcon was eventually found on top of a building by one of its handlers. There is a reason that there are not that many live mascots anymore. It’s one thing for a fairly harmless bird to get on the loose, but just imagine Ralphie running wild in downtown Shreveport.