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July 21, 2025 |  By: Gavin McGough

Local connections to mascot industry Hall of Fame

Toro - Houston, Texas mascot

© 2024 Mascot Hall of Fame, All Rights Reserved. 

Team mascots: fans love 'em, from the Spoofhounds to the Bearcats, to the Bethany Bulldog, 'Boomer.'

Well, there's a Hall of Fame for professionals in the mascot industry. And Toro, of the Houston Texans, has been honored this year as an inductee. KXCV's Gavin McGough found out there's a local connection:

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 As the Chief's Training Camp gets underway in St. Joseph this week, it may be all things Chiefs on the mind, but Toro, the mascot for the Houston Texans made some waves in the media recently when he was inducted into the 2025 Mascot Hall of Fame, an organization that recognizes the work of professional mascots.

The man behind Toro is a Kansas City native, Andrew Johnson, and he says his early years brought him through Northwestern Missouri.

 "My first real opportunity came in high school. I was at Lee's Summit West High School. I was the Titan mascot for three years, and it was while I was the Titan mascot, I realized that people actually get a scholarship to do this in college."

"So I started looking around at different schools and ended up at Northwest Missouri State as Bobby the Bearcat. And it was while I was there as Bobby Bearcat that I found out that people actually made a living doing this."

 Johnson eventually transferred to the University of Missouri at Kansas City to be closer to professional Mascotting opportunities.

He tutored under Dan Meers at the Chiefs before moving to Houston to join the Texans. With his team in Houston, Johnson has written a children's book as Toro, and he's participated in dozens of school outreach programs.

" We've got a school program that goes around and we teach kids what to do if they're ever, uh, being bullied. Using a bull acronym. We take the bull out of bullying. Be yourself, use your voice, leave bad situations and look out for others."

 Good lessons for all of us. This sort of work is now recognized by the Hall of Fame securing this year's nomination, required winning a vote amongst football fans nationwide. Houston's Toro came out on top.

 "Houston's Toro came out on top. Then on the other side, there's an executive committee that's made up of current and former mascot performers that has been in the industry that know what it takes to build a mascot program and they have to also vote on you. And Toro was also ranked number one in the Executive Committee vote. So we came out on top of both those categories."

 Up next for Johnson. Yes, it's a training camp every year. The Texans camp kickoff marks a major event for Toro and his team. They spend hours greeting fans and building hype out on the pavement.

 "It is in the middle of August out here in Houston, Texas, where it could easily be 90, 95, a hundred degrees and close to a hundred percent humidity. So heat is a real factor when it comes to training camp. You sweat a lot. I can usually be out there for about 30 to 45 minutes before the sweat kind of starts to puddle up in my gloves. And you know, you drop a lot of weight at at that appearance, but you can just feel the energy and excitement for the season at training camp."

 Back close to home as the Chiefs start their training camp this week, their beloved mascot and Johnson's mentor, Dan Meers, is retired from the team after 35 years as the KC Wolf. Johnson still remembers meeting the wolf as an elementary school student in Kansas City when Meers came to his classroom.

" I don't remember what educational message he brought that day. I just remember that he had the coolest job in the world, and I wanted to be just like Dan when I got older."

 If you'd like to hear more from Johnson, you can tune in on Wednesday around 9:05 for a Morning Conversation. We'll have a a longer cut of our interview.

If you would like to learn more about The Mascot Hall of Fame, you can visit this link and learn more on their website.