The Jacksonville Jaguars are a team which plays in the AFC and belong to the AFC South division. One of the relatively new franchises, the Jaguars have not had the amount of success that they would have liked. They started out very strong after making the playoffs in the first four of their five seasons and looked like they could quickly challenge for the Lombardi Trophy. The team plays their home games at Everbank Stadium in Jacksonville.
Jacksonville’s mascot has always been in the news whether the reason is good or not. Becoming the first mascot in the NFL to try out dangerous open air stunts gained him much deserved popularity. However, some of his over the top antics raised a few controversies also along the way. Nevertheless, he has been part of the Jaguars since 1996 bringing fame to the team all over the country and even in the UK as the Jaguars have played a number of games there for the past few years.
Jacksonville Jaguars Mascot
The team introduced their official mascot the following year in 1996 as a costumed jaguar by the name of Jaxson de Ville. The team name was previously chosen through a naming contest in which the top options were the Jaguars, the Stingrays, or the Sharks. At the time of selecting the name, the Jacksonville Zoo had the oldest living jaguar in all of North America. As a result, the name Jaguars was selected and thus the team mascot also became a jaguar.
Who plays Jaxson de Ville?
The current person who is playing the role of Jaxson de Ville is unknown. However, the original man inside the costume was Curtis Dvorak who played the role of the mascot from 1995 till 2015 when he finally decided to retire from his mascot career.
Dvorak was essentially the mascot for the newly established franchise for 19 seasons and made an appearance at every home game as well as off field events. In reality, Curtis actually made a mind boggling 7,000 appearances in all throughout his almost two decade career with the Jaguars, that is close to 370 appearances in a year.
As the initiator of Jaxson de ville and his death defying stunts, Dvorak was the man behind all the famous bungee jumps, diving in the pool after a win, sliding on a zip line to make an entrance and parachuting his way to the field type of stunts. He was also very popular for his various antics which even got him into trouble at times.
After a 19 year long career as the mascot for the Jaguars, Dvorak decided to step away from what he loved doing in 2015. About a month after retirement, he joined two local shows in Jacksonville; ‘First Coast Living’ and ‘Good Morning Jacksonville’ as a co-host where he would again entertain the people only this time outside of the suit.
FAQs
A. The Jaguars' mascot had a tendency to distract the opposition players and mock and joke about their mascots. Several rule changes for mascots were implemented due to the Jaguars' mascot.
A. The Jaguars introduced Jaxson de Ville as their mascot in 1996. 2023 will be his 28th season as the team mascot.
A. Jaxson de Ville jumps into the pool at the Jaguars stadium after the team wins.
A. The open air stunts such as bungee jumping from the stadium lights, entering the field via a zip line and parachuting into the field are some stunts initiated by Jaxson de Ville, the Jaguars mascot.
