Commentary: L.A.'s Olympics mascot please, not for the birds
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Love ya, Jackie and Shadow, but no more bald eagles as Olympic mascots, period.On drafting boards and computer screens hither and yon, a menagerie’s worth of creatures – actual and imaginary – have been created and discarded, eliminated and cast aside like luckless beauty pageant contestants, down to perhaps a dozen, then a handful, and at last a winner will be revealed: the official mascot for the 2028 Los Angeles summer Olympics.The mystery mascot’s debut could still be six months away.The last time L.A.hosted the summer Olympics, in 1984, the mascot stepped out four long years before the games began.
He was Sam the Eagle, our national bird transformed by a Disney artist, and to some eyes bearing a slight resemblance to an earlier Disney avian character, a parrot.Peter Ueberroth, the head of the L.A.
Olympics committee, allowed as how “fuzzy duck” was not an apt description for Sam.Why did Sam get such an early hatching, back in 1980, but we’re awaiting 2028’s mascot?First, Sam was probably stealing a march on Russia.The US had boycotted the 1980 Moscow games over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and in 1984, the Soviet Union retaliated by staying home from L.A.
The Moscow closing ceremonies were on a Sunday, Aug.30, 1980; within hours, Sam the Eagle stepped out.
And down.Los Angeles is a complex place.Luckily, there's someone who can provide context, history and culture.
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Escorted by actor and perpetual emcee Bob Hope, Sam the Eagle descended the L.A.City Hall steps, all seven and a half feet of him, tall as a Lakers c...