Buck Harvey: Coyote farewell: Salute to a talent
San Antonio Express-News
Web Posted : 02/24/2004 12:00 AM
One of the greatest athletes I've ever seen could skate backward with shag carpet pulled over his head.
One of the greatest athletes I've ever seen could rappel inside an iron lung, dunk a basketball while wrapped in mummy linen, leap onto a trampoline while sitting in a sauna.
One of the greatest athletes I've ever seen?
Tim Derk, the Coyote, can't walk today without the aid of a walker.
He's still in a hospital, and he might be in a rehab center for another month. They say he's getting better, gradually as stroke victims do, and maybe some other mascot news would make him feel better.
He should know about the Philly Phanatic, whose head was stolen. And he should know about Da Bull, a mascot for the Chicago Bulls, who lost his mind; he was arrested for selling marijuana outside a Chicago housing project.
He should know, in Miami, a fan tossed a beer at Heat mascot Burnie, and the fan was ejected, but only after Burnie countered by squirting the man with a large water gun. And he should know about last Friday, when a large man put Stuff the Magic Dragon, the Orlando Magic mascot, in a chokehold.
Police were alerted, and it took three stun-gun shots to remove the mascot mauler. "Stuff," said an Orlando policeman, "was nearly snuffed."
That's the way it is with these costumed creatures. Everything looks like a joke with them, even when the news inside the outfit is not.
That was even true this past week. Then the Missions mascots, Ballapeño and Henry the Puffy Taco, honored Derk at Wolff Stadium with a walk to home plate. The Express-News called it "a subdued procession."
Derk would have found the humor in Ballapeño and Henry the Puffy Taco doing anything subdued, because he found humor in almost everything. He brought the Coyote to life with both enthusiasm and a comedic touch.
He struggled in the beginning. I saw him then, when he started in 1983, and the act didn't come close to what was going on in Phoenix with the Gorilla or in San Diego with the Chicken.
But Derk stuck with it, developed skits and grew on people. He began making a lot of appearances, as well as a lot of money.
Kids loved "Entertainus Carnivorous" (his full name), and adults bought into the Vaudeville comedy. Derk included a bio that mimicked the bios of the Spurs players:
Weight: Till I'm good and ready.
Vaccinations: All current.
Hometown: Sheep Buffet, Texas.
In time he became as much a part of San Antonio as David Robinson. And a few years ago, after he needed shoulder surgery because he missed a landing and hit the court, I talked with him about his future.
Derk knew the dangers of being an aging mascot, and he was very protective of the integrity of his creation. He said he would not hang around past his physical prime and walk the court as a beer-bellied Coyote.
But his prime lasted longer than most, because he was a physical marvel. At 46, he could have passed for 26.
He already had the eye-hand gifts of the collegiate tennis player he once was. But Derk also worked harder in that costume that anyone realizes, because that costume was more tortuous than anyone realizes.
A dozen years ago another newspaper reporter put on the costume and tried to be Derk for a story. The reporter didn't do much; he simply walked to mid-court for a few minutes and pointed in different directions to elicit crowd noise.
The reporter came back sweating, claustrophobic and inadequate. He felt sensory deprived, as if he had been moving underwater.
Derk — in this same state — skated and rappelled and dunked and leapt, often losing 15 pounds in a night.
They say his career choice could have caused his stroke, but that his physical condition might have saved him from further damage. No matter how or why, he's likely finished as a mascot, in the end as vulnerable to physical limits as the basketball players he starred with.
The show goes on tonight. Another will wear the outfit, and they will call him The Coyote.
But he's not.
One of the greatest athletes I've ever seen is retired.
