Vick emphasizes that he doesn’t want to be selfish in his approach to these matters.

“I would be like selfish man, that’s selfish. I’ve told a couple of them that, and they’ll be like, ‘Nah coach I want to be with you the whole time,’ and I’m like, ‘Alright. Well, when somebody comes and calls you, they get $700,000. Let me see if you want that.’”

It will be fascinating to see how Vick and Jackson approach college recruiting, balancing the influence of NIL funds in college football with the strong value of their established brands as NFL stars.

DULUTH — I have many concerns as a parent, but my biggest nightmare is having to replace my child’s favorite stuffie, Teddy.

Teddy is a pretty generic bear. He was a gift from my aunt to my oldest child when he was born. Teddy has no doubt seen better days after 6-plus years of love. He’s lost a lot of weight, his fur is permanently matted and his bow tie is now just a tattered knot.

What would happen if I tried to replace Teddy in any way? Well, the result would likely be similar

to what the University of Minnesota Duluth went through back in the fall of 2022

when the Bulldogs athletic department tried to replace its own aging and excessively loved stuffie, Champ.

Like Teddy, Champ had seen much better days back in 2022. His gray fur was matted, he smelled as funky as the hockey players he cheered on and at least one version of him was falling apart. So UMD got a new Champ whose fur was soft, breathable and bright, bright yellow.

It was so yellow.

UMD fans responded to the new Champ the same way any child would act if you took away their favorite stuffie and replaced it with a new one. Bulldogs fans threw a tantrum — mostly online, as adults do these days — so large that

UMD gave fans their old gray stuffie back five days later.

On the Bulldog Insider Podcast,

we like to open occasional episodes up to fan questions, and every time someone will randomly ask “Whatever happened to New Champ?”

Every time I skip the question. I’m sorry, but I didn’t have an answer, until now.

I recently spent some time asking those in the know, “What ever happened to New Champ?” and filed fresh data requests to go along with some I filed back in 2022. Here’s what I’ve learned:

That big, bright yellow grin is no longer with us here in Duluth. According to UMD deputy director of athletics Brian Nystrom — who placed the order for the new Champ in the summer of 2022 — the costumes were sent back to the company UMD bought them from, Promo Bears.

The final invoice from Promo Bears was for $10,716.65, including service charges and credit card processing fees. Each costume was quoted at $3,450. The gigantic heads included a built in fan system for air circulation. Heat exhaustion was a concern with the old Champ costumes. The performers sweat a lot in them, hence the smell.

And it didn’t deserve one. Promo Bears made the new Champ costumes exactly to UMD’s specifications, basing it off the standing champ logo. The company even matched the color of Champ’s sweater and fur exactly to UMD’s color specifications as the athletic department attempted to get their new mascot as close as possible to the university’s official colors.

Clint Austin / File / Duluth Media Group

Your toddler would definitely notice if you gave them a new version of their most beloved stuffie, but Bulldogs fans may not have noticed that a “new” old Champ has been in use since the 2023-24 season. UMD bought a full replacement costume costing $1,345 and an extra head for $995. Shipping was $140. These new costumes do not have any fancy cooling mechanisms in the heads.

The real name of the Bulldogs costumed mascot is actually

“Buddy Bulldog No. 15.”

While “New Champ” was a custom costume, the old one was a generic costume made by

Alinco.

You can buy one yourself directly from Alinco, or through a third party site like

Aardvark USA, LLC/SportsTeamsUS.

The latter is where UMD purchased its costumes from.

Clint Austin / File / Duluth News Tribune

He was announced as the new athletic director on Aug. 17 and officially began on Aug. 29. Three days later, he and the department were being pelted with cruel memes — the modern day rotten fruit — and fans were blaming the new AD for a change that was well underway before Josh Berlo ever left for Denver on June 2.

UMD reached out to Promo Bears in January 2022 about creating a new Champ costume. After going back and forth for a few months mostly about the colors, the order was placed for three costumes in mid-June. They were completed on Aug. 23 and shipped to UMD shortly after.

Clint Austin / File / Duluth News Tribune

Matt Wellens / Duluth News Tribune

A committee of “students, alumni, fans and supporters” was supposed to come together to

“gather input and examine several concepts for the Champ costume.”

Nystrom said names were taken down and the committee process was discussed, however, the university now has no plans to change the costume again in the near future.

UMD learned its lesson. Don’t mess with a kid’s Teddy.

Matt Wellens

covers the

Minnesota Duluth men’s and women’s hockey programs

for the Duluth News Tribune. Do you have an odd question or topic you’d like him to research? He can be reached at mwellens@duluthnews.com or

@mattwellens

on social media channels.

Isaac Howard was MSU hockey’s golden player throughout the entire 2024-25 season. The junior forward collected pre-season First Team All-Big Ten honors, 26 goals and 26 assists in games played, a number of game clinching goals – including the overtime winner in the Big Ten tournament – and overall was a vision of what the team meant.

Howard ranked first nationally throughout the season in points per game at 1.41, ranked third in goals per game at .70 and 23rd at .70 assists per game. The junior ranked fifth of all NCAA DI players in points at the end of the season. 

The strides made for the Wisconsin native earned him several season accolades, including four in the conference and three nationally. Howard is coming back for more in his senior season after forgoing a professional contract and choosing to return to East Lansing. 

Big Ten Accolades

Howard began his junior season with Pre-Season Big Ten Honors and ended with it becoming a reality on the First Team All-Big Ten list. 

But there was no stopping Howard after his career high 52 point season. Not only did he finish the season as the Big Ten’s leading scorer with 16 goals and 17 assists in conference, but those numbers earned him the title of Big Ten Scoring Champion. 

His 52 total points was a signification of becoming the team’s first 50 point scorer since Taro Hirose in the 2018-2019 season. Alongside the point leading honors, Howard was named the Big Ten Player of the year, just the third player to do so as a Spartan.

The five-foot-eleven forward also earned the title of Most Outstanding Player in the Big Ten Tournament, notching the game winning goal in both games that the Spartans played. The first was in a 1-0 shutout against Notre Dame and the second was in a double overtime thriller against the Buckeyes of Ohio State. 

First Team All American

Just before the announcement of the Hobey Baker, names appeared on a screen in the Stifel Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri. It listed those who were selected as All-Americans, players who represented the best-of-the-best in college hockey during the season.

Not only was Howard named a First Team All-American, joining a lengthy list of Spartans that have captured the honor, but future junior netminder Trey Augustine was honored on the First Team list as well as now-senior defenseman Matt Basgall who was named to the Second Team. The three became the first trio to cultivate what it means to be an All-American in the green and white sweater since 1999. 

The forward, defenseman and goalie joined just three other Big Ten standouts as All Americans in the East.

Hobey Baker Memorial Award

Kip Miller accomplished the feat in 1990, the first Spartan to win the Hobey Baker. After him came his little brother Ryan Miller, who became a world class goalie and a legend in the eyes of the MSU community and the NHL.

24 years later, Howard walked onto the stage after hugging his family and friends and gave his speech about being honored to receive the memorial award, having his name etched into the Spartan hockey spotlight for decades to come. 

Howard was pitted against Ryan Leonard of the Boston College Eagles and Zeev Buium from the University of Denver. Both had remarkable seasons in their own ways; Buium with his outstanding defensive play and Leonard with his strong ability to get to the net and create scoring opportunities. Since the award ceremony, both have made NHL debuts with the teams they were drafted to.

Jim Johannson College Player of the Year

And to put the cherry on top, Howard collected his final accolade of the season after earning a gold medal with USA Hockey at the IIHF tournament on May 26 with a final score of 1-0, team USA’s first gold medal at the tournament since 1933.  

Being named USA Hockey’s Jim Johannson College Player of the Year – the best NCAA DI American-born ice hockey player – he is the fourth Spartan to amass the honor. The Jim Johannson award was renamed in 2019 in honor of him. Winning a national championship with the University of Wisconsin, Johannson went on to work as an executive with USA Hockey for two decades. 

Riding high after a Big Ten regular season and tournament title, an appearance in the NCAA Ice Hockey Tournament and a gold medal with the United States, Howard’s return to campus is now lingering. He is set to begin in October as he, Nightingale and the rest of the squad battle to get to their first Frozen four appearance since 2007. 

It’s going to be a very wet KSR Golf Scramble at the University Club this year, if there’s any golf at all. It’s pouring all day in Lexington. Still, the KSR crew is live from 10 a.m. to noon from the clubhouse before the tournament, with two new hours of radio conversation about Kentucky Baseball in the NCAA Tournament and more.

You can join the fun by phone on the Clark’s Pump N Shop phone line at (859) 280-2287. Discuss the show with us on KSBoard.

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