Feathers Were Flying the Day the Huskies Sacked Herky the Hawk

A band member from Iowa holds his arms outstretched in protest. Yet another points to the fallen figure directly in front of him. A woman covers her face in concern. Another is seen yelling at the perpetrators.

At the 1982 Rose Bowl, there is outrage. There is disbelief. There are smiles.

Forty years ago, the University of Washington's 28-0 beatdown of this Big Ten team was much worse than reported.

Herky the Hawk got sacked.

Taken out in the end zone when he wasn't looking.

Left prone on the ground.

One annoying mascot, dropped hard.

In the photo evidence shown here, Husky linemen Scott Fausset (52) and Pat Zakskorn (66) can be seen impishly leaving the scene of this well-orchestrated Pasadena prank, grinning widely over their handiwork, pulled off on a punt-coverage play undetected by the TV cameras.

Zakskorn, the Huskies' starting right guard, had planned it all along, from the moment he stepped on the field.

"He said in warm-ups, 'If I get a chance, I'm going to take out their mascot,' " said Don Dow, who played alongside him at offensive tackle. "He went right through him."

It was a play reminiscent of the one depicted in the football film "Varsity Blues," where the Johnny Moxon character, played by actor James Van Der Beek, knocks an opposing team mascot off his horse with a well-placed pass.

It was a tough day all around for Iowa in 1982.

Bobby Stoops, the Hawkeyes' sensational safety and later the Oklahoma football coach, limped off the field.

Andre Tippett, Iowa's All-American edge rusher and later an NFL All-Pro player, was neutralized and hardly a fearsome factor.

Kevin Krause paid a hefty price, too.

Krause?

He was the Iowa student dressed up as Herky the Hawk that day.

He was the latest rendition of a beloved mascot that had been part of the Iowa game-day experience since 1959, though it was initially drawn up in comic form 11 years earlier.

Herky has not always been well-behaved either.

Much later on following this Rose Bowl, theI owa mascot got in a fight with a Minnesota drummer in a game played in sub-zero temperatures. Herky broke the guy's glasses. The other person smashed the hawk head into pieces.

Little did Zakskorn know in 1982, but in Kevin Krause he upended a guy who later became the general manager of the CBA's Cedar Rapids pro-basketball franchise, a bank president and, yes, even a county prosecutor.

For Zakskorn's sake, here's hoping the statute of limitations for sending feathers flying in a bowl game has run out.

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