Red suit trio ‘passionate about USD’
Touchdown celebrations aren’t just for athletes. For the past four years, a group of students have decided to take being Coyote Crazies to another level.
“The cops do ask to see our faces when we come in,” said Peterson, a political science major. “Just in case we do something dumb.”
Senior Chad Peterson, senior Connor O’Hara and junior Alex McKee dress up for University of South Dakota football games in skin-tight red morph suits, and instead of cheering from the sideline, they make their way onto the DakotaDome’s south endzone for a quick celebratory lap.
The trio exudes their school spirit, just as long as Lindsay Sparks, director of Student Services, gives the thumbs-up.
“Lindsay Sparks, bless her heart, just let’s us do it,” McKee said. “As long as she says it’s OK, it’s OK.”
The red morph suit trio started with Peterson’s cousin Parker Erickson, who asked Peterson and O’Hara if they wanted to join him.
O’Hara, a business major, said all of a sudden, they were running in the end zone after a Coyote touchdown.
“We didn’t think we’d get to run out onto the field at first,” O’Hara said. “The first time we did it without asking, and we expected to come back and get in a ton of trouble.”
Now, the guys do find themselves getting at least a little bit of attention before Coyote games.
“We met John Thune and took a bunch of pictures with him at tailgate,” Peterson said. “He was like, ‘These suits we awesome.’”
While not every game day is filled with pictures with state senators, the guys find themselves in a few random photo opportunities, McKee said.
“On game days when we see people at tailgate, they’re like ‘Oh, that’s you guys?’” he said. “But it’s not like everybody sees us around campus and comes up to us.”
O’Hara said they try to break off from the cheerleaders running with the flags. They’ve only once almost ran into the flag carriers, but the most dangerous thing that’s happened was a big hit last year, he said.
“The one time Chad tackled me,” O’Hara said. “Lindsay said we weren’t allowed to do that after.”
Even the football team takes notice of the red suits.
“(They) made our highlight reel from last season,” said junior linebacker Colin Buscarini. “Are you ready for Coyote football? Then boom, Chad blasts you over.”
McKee said the guys try their best not to get in trouble and usually stick to their own routines — his being a cartwheel that rarely goes well.
“We do enough to push the limits,” the health sciences major said. “To even let us run the field, we’re definitely satisfied with what we have already.”
The trio said they’re just lucky to go to a university that would even allow them to consider running on the field. None of them have ever gotten hurt.
McKee wasn’t sure what he would do with his suit in a few years, but Peterson said he plans to keep his suit alive.
“I’ll hand my suit down,” Peterson said. “We’ll see who is worthy.”
(Photo: Alex Mckee, left, Chad Peterson, middle and Connor O’Hara, right, run through the endzone dressed in red morph suits after each touchdown scored by USD during football games. Nathan Ellenbecker / The Volante)
