For a college hockey program full of incredible and historic feats on the ice, one University of Minnesota Duluth men's hockey icon may stand above them all  – the beloved Maroon Loon.

 

The Maroon Loon has the distinction of being arguably one of the first traditions that truly belonged to the men's hockey program. Ask any Bulldog fan who frequented games in the 1980's and 1990's what they remember most fondly, and a majority will probably answer, "the Maroon Loon," before they even name drop watching future Hall of Famer Brett Hull, or Hobey Baker standout Chris Marinucci. While UMD fans love their on-ice Bulldogs of years back, the Maroon Loon left an entertainment legacy that has been unmatched since.

 

Pinning down the precise history of how the Maroon Loon came to be and who actually wore the suit will be forever part of its lore, but it's well chronicled that it all started in 1981. Former Bulldog forward Scott Carlston, along with Scott Johnson, developed the secondary mascot idea and came up with an image of the Loon. That image found itself at the doorstep of the Duluth Blue Line Auxiliary women's organization, who found the iconic fabric and sewed the Maroon Loon into their own vision, truly bringing the first costume to life.

 

A word-of-mouth narrative is part of the mystique of the Maroon Loon, but all accounts line up accurately to assert that Johnson was the first person ever to wear it. He debuted the Maroon Loon at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center on Oct. 30, 1981, and his initial introduction of the Maroon Loon was received with somewhat mixed reviews. After its debut, the Maroon Loon's appearances were fewer than five games over the 1981-82 season. 

 

Ken Truscott became the second Maroon Loon, bridging the gap between the very small Johnson era to the eventual Jay Jackson era. Truscott, a UMD hockey booster and one-time president of the Blue Line Club, knew the organization was having a hard time finding someone to fill the role. Truscott decided it would be something he would enjoy, and picked it up for a portion of 1981 and then all of 1982, keeping the Maroon Loon in front of fans for another season.
 

It was Truscott's next move, however, that would forever change the future of the Maroon Loon.

"Probably the most fulfilling thing that the Blue Line Club Auxiliary did was create an adoption program where we would adopt a current player on the UMD hockey team," said Truscott. "We would have all the guys over for dinners and holidays, and former UMD defenseman Jimmy Johnson was the first player that we adopted. Jimmy was at our house every week, and we got to know his girlfriend and the whole Jackson family, which included Jay. We were very close, and so in the summer of 1983, I spoke with Jay and convinced Jay to give the Loon a try."

Truscott's effort to find the next Maroon was hugely successful, and Jackson's commitment to the once secondary hockey mascot helped make it a household name in Duluth and beyond.

 

"Jay was an amazing Loon, and we'd work on choreography, stunts and some of just some of the crazy things that he would do," said Truscott. "He was so well taken by the fans in the community, and he would go out in the community, go to schools and parades. Jay totally embodied the Loon, and because of him, everybody knew who the Loon was, it was truly amazing."

Jackson elevated the fledgling mascot to heights even he couldn't have imagined – the Maroon Loon even had his own fan club. Unafraid of coming up with new skits and ideas, Jackson bet on his newfound fame and took a shot at asking the UMD administration for a scholarship.

 

"After I started to have a fan club, I went to the provost of the university and asked if there was any chance they could give me a scholarship in order to do this," said Jackson earlier this week. "He replied, 'Ok, what else do you want?' I said, 'Well, is there any way you could have someone come up with some money so I can travel with the team?'"

 

Jackson's request was granted, and he began to travel with the team after the Cloquet Connection booster group helped sponsor his travel. He believes he was the first mascot in the history of college athletics to go to the Soviet Union, a trip he took with UMD's team in December of 1984, and where he skated with the team in both Moscow, and what was then called Leningrad. 

 

For three seasons until he graduated in 1986, Jackson made the Maroon Loon famous to not just UMD men's hockey fans, but to college hockey fans across the country. 

 

"I had absolutely no experience," said Jackson when asked about how he became the Loon. "I did grow up playing ice hockey in Elk River, Minnesota, but I was not good enough to play college hockey. So I just started making up skits, and fortunately the team was so successful."

 

The Maroon Loon's rise coincided with some of the best Bulldog hockey in program history, and it gave Jackson sold-out-arena opportunities like at the DECC to entertain thousands of fans.

 

Jackson's most famous skit involved skating on stilts, an idea he came up with after his trip to Russia when he saw a bear skating on stilts in a circus performance. After trial and error, Jackson invented the stilts by using a pipe welded to both a ski boot and a goalie skate blade. After getting hurt on his six-foot stilts, he settled on two-and-half-foot stilts that allowed him to skate around the ice with much more ease.

 

"Looking back, half the fun was the various skits we would come up with and do, that's what people enjoyed the most," said Jackson. 

 

But Jackson didn't limit himself to the stilts. His gigs ranged from limousines on the ice, to a leaf blower with a propeller that went 25 miles per hour, to skiing behind the zamboni. His countless stories show the risks he was willing to take to entertain college hockey fans all over the country.

 

In the fall of 1986, with one semester left of school, Jackson was also hired by the North Stars as their newly created Loon Star. Ready to graduate and busy with another mascot gig, Jackson looked to one of his roommates, Brian Haedrich (the other was Bulldog forward and fan favorite Skeeter Moore, ironically), to join him, and eventually carry on the tradition as the next Maroon Loon.

 

"Jay, Brian and I were close and did a lot of things inside and outside the rink," said Truscott. "Brian Haedrich did an amazing job for a long period of time, and again as a pillar in our community, was very involved with children and in visiting schools, etc. All in all, UMD Hockey played a big part in our lives and my stint as the Maroon Loon and watching the Maroon Loon after that was amazing, and it's something that I'll never forget."

 

Haedrich, a Hermantown, Minnesota, native, took over from Jackson eventually and would end up as the longest-serving Maroon Loon in UMD history. His first tenure began full-time in 1987, and continued through 1990, when he graduated from UMD. For a few seasons in between, there were one or two other Maroon Loons in costume – one of many holes in the Maroon Loon's timeline –  but Haedrich returned as the Loon in 1996, a role he served in until the spring of 1999.

 

"I went to UMD and had the opportunity to live with Jay Jackson and Skeeter Moore," said Haedrich. "Jay was the Loon at that time, and I had the opportunity to work with him as he sort of started developing the craft and vision for the Loon. I was fortunate enough to be there firsthand and see what Jay was thinking about that. After he left, to be able to do it for 8-9 years, it was the greatest opportunity. People to this day still recognize that and know that and bring that up, and that is very humbling that it's still being talked about."

 

Haedrich continued the extension of the Maroon Loon beyond the DECC ice and into the community, occasionally bringing the Maroon Loon on campus for a football game or a charity event. Haedrich also got more eyes on the mascot with gigs like the ESPN-broadcasted 1987 NCAA Championship game in Detroit, Michigan, after the Western Collegiate Hockey Association selected him to represent all of the league's teams.

 

Haedrich handed off the Maroon Loon to Chad Moren in 1999, and Moren was the final full-time Maroon Loon at UMD, serving until 2005. Moren volunteered his time in costume and wasn't paid by UMD, but like the Maroon Loons before him, he also took the mascot beyond the arena. He paid special attention to underrepresented groups, like fans with disabilities, and even invited those fans out on the ice at games to help with skits.

 

"I did my tour for nothing, I was a volunteer," said Moren, who drove hundreds of miles to bring the Maroon Loon to life. "I enjoyed the kids and enjoyed the fans."

 

Moren used more props than stunts, and one of his most famous was a water gun that he would use to soak opposing fans. 

 

"That prop alone was awesome," Moren said. "Squirting Gophers fans was always fun."

 

The tenure of the Maroon Loon quietly came to an end after the 2005-06 season, when the UMD Athletic department simply didn't name a replacement for the famous mascot. The Maroon Loon's final appearance on behalf of the UMD men's hockey team came in the Bulldogs' final game at the DECC on Dec. 4, 2010. Haedrich did the honors, and suited up in his old costume for one last time for a sellout crowd of 5,409 Bulldog fans.

 

Because there are multiple suits from the decades of Maroon Loons, the mascot has appeared at various events unrelated to UMD over the past decade.

 

But Friday night, Nov. 14, 2025, the Maroon Loon, in original costume and with original props, will return as a mascot for the UMD men's hockey team in the one building he's never performed in – AMSOIL Arena.

 

After 15 years, Bulldog fans will finally get to welcome back their beloved Maroon Loon.