Of course, when we say "beat a visitor" we are referring to the metaphorical beating that takes place on the scoreboard.I found a great story about our wonderful neighbors down the Pike in Philly who take the phrase a tad more literally.
This is from an undated interview from The Pittsburgh Standard between Ramesh C. Reddy and the person in the Pitt Panther costume (shhh, don't tell your kids the Panther's not a real wild predatory feline!!):
Ramesh: Cool! What has been a memory you would like to forget as a Pitt Panther?
Panther: Memory I would like to forget? (Hmm) Every year I go to Temple and I always go up into the crowd because I am from Lancaster and have a lot of family and friends that go to that game. The crowd there is really intense; they are mean people, really mean to the mascot. I went up in the stands to see some family and would go around and make my rounds. There must have been a group of 12 kids that just beat me up.
Ramesh: Awe
Panther: Yeah, I guess that would be probably the memory I would like to forget. This year was not that bad but the year before I got beat up pretty bad.
Ramesh: Awe man! Did your uniform come off?
Panther: Yeah, my head blew off
Ramesh: Awe, that is not good!
Panther: I guess Temple would be the only time it happened. I just lay down and took it.
Ramesh: Awe
Panther: I covered my face and curled up. That’s about all I could do.
Ramesh: Did anyone come and rescue you?
Panther: Eventually! It took time but eventually some Pitt fans saw what was happening, ran down and helped me out.
I think I can speak for my fellow fans at Rutgers Stadium when I pledge that we will keep our hands off the person wearing the plush feline head this weekend. The people wearing gold helmets, however, are on their own.
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