WVU mascot told to stop hunting with school musket
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - The musket toted by West Virginia University's Mountaineer isn't just a prop - it's a bona fide weapon, and mascot Jonathan Kimble demonstrated that when he brought down a black bear with it in the woods.
Now WVU has ordered Kimble to stop using his university-issued weapon on hunting trips after a video of this week's kill was posted online. He says hunting with the gun is a Mountaineer mascot tradition.
The 24-year-old Franklin resident accompanied more than a dozen friends and family on the trip in Pendleton County on Monday. In the video, Kimble is shown firing the musket at the bear in a tree.
"Let's go Mountaineers!" Kimble yells afterward. He also posted a photo of himself with the bear on Twitter.
The WVU mascot wears buckskin and a coonskin cap and fires the musket - loaded with black powder but minus ammunition - at home athletic events and other sponsored activities. Hunting isn't one of them.
"While Jonathan Kimble's actions broke no laws or regulations, the university has discussed this with him, and he agrees that it would be appropriate to forego using the musket in this way in the future," said WVU spokesman John Bolt.
Kimble said Friday that he's been hunting all his life and this was the first black bear he's ever killed. He said all his friends have congratulated him for that.
"Hunting can be a controversial topic," Kimble said. "I apologize to any of those who took offense to the video. It definitely wasn't my intent to offend anybody."
Kimble said he taking the musket on hunting trips has become a tradition with the mascots.
"Other Mountaineers have gone and shot multiple deer with it before. I've taken it with me deer hunting before, also."
Some WVU fans stood behind Kimble on Friday.
"This is a smart young man from West Virginia who did nothing wrong, who was celebrating who he is," said Robert Hickman, who holds two degrees from WVU and lives near Fairmont.
"If you're from West Virginia and you love the outdoors, or if you hunt or don't hunt, or if you fish or don't fish, it is a celebration of this state. As a former WVU graduate, I'm thrilled to death with him. Happy as can be."
The Mountaineer mascot first appeared at athletic events in the 1936-1937 school year. The Mountaineer is selected each year and the mascot's outfit is custom tailored to fit the winner.
Last February, the bearded Kimble was chosen from among 13 applicants.
Now WVU has ordered Kimble to stop using his university-issued weapon on hunting trips after a video of this week's kill was posted online. He says hunting with the gun is a Mountaineer mascot tradition.
The 24-year-old Franklin resident accompanied more than a dozen friends and family on the trip in Pendleton County on Monday. In the video, Kimble is shown firing the musket at the bear in a tree.
"Let's go Mountaineers!" Kimble yells afterward. He also posted a photo of himself with the bear on Twitter.
The WVU mascot wears buckskin and a coonskin cap and fires the musket - loaded with black powder but minus ammunition - at home athletic events and other sponsored activities. Hunting isn't one of them.
"While Jonathan Kimble's actions broke no laws or regulations, the university has discussed this with him, and he agrees that it would be appropriate to forego using the musket in this way in the future," said WVU spokesman John Bolt.
Kimble said Friday that he's been hunting all his life and this was the first black bear he's ever killed. He said all his friends have congratulated him for that.
"Hunting can be a controversial topic," Kimble said. "I apologize to any of those who took offense to the video. It definitely wasn't my intent to offend anybody."
Kimble said he taking the musket on hunting trips has become a tradition with the mascots.
"Other Mountaineers have gone and shot multiple deer with it before. I've taken it with me deer hunting before, also."
Some WVU fans stood behind Kimble on Friday.
"This is a smart young man from West Virginia who did nothing wrong, who was celebrating who he is," said Robert Hickman, who holds two degrees from WVU and lives near Fairmont.
"If you're from West Virginia and you love the outdoors, or if you hunt or don't hunt, or if you fish or don't fish, it is a celebration of this state. As a former WVU graduate, I'm thrilled to death with him. Happy as can be."
The Mountaineer mascot first appeared at athletic events in the 1936-1937 school year. The Mountaineer is selected each year and the mascot's outfit is custom tailored to fit the winner.
Last February, the bearded Kimble was chosen from among 13 applicants.
Beautiful rifle, by the way.
I have no problem with this if the meat went to someone who needed it. If not, then shame on us all.
 @Mikey Who would eat bear meat? Nobody eats bear meat.Â
@KKStJohn I know a lot of folks who eat bear meat. I've had it myself. Greasy, but good.
Actually, people do. A good friend lives in AK and eats it on a regular basis.
what is disturbing as heck to me is the fact that the bear was treed....this means the bear was a cub or very very young....what a coward...killing baby bears......
 @Joseph Fisher To be honest there is a need for Population control in his area, and if bear cubs are open, and he is eating it and not killing for sport, then we have no right to judge him. and as far as I am concerend People telling this guy not to hunt in this Out fit, is nonselnse. telling some not to hunt is of all things Unamerican as this is how many people put food on the tabel..
Might It also interest you to know that we have a restaurant here that serves Elk, Turkey, Beefalo , and Buffalo . Oh and I had bear, it is delicious as is Cougar, and Deer .
 @Joseph Fisher PLus that bear cub could still "rip one to shreds"
 @Joseph Fisher Hmm Looks like a "Brown Bear"
 @Joseph Fisher This is an ignorant comment.
Why would you say something that is so obviously wrong?
@ Joseph Fisher    This is obviously not a baby bear, but probably 4-5yr old adult. An average Black Bear is 150-200lbs, but the man made a good quick kill with no suffering, and some very healthy organic meat to eat as a result. The true hypocrits are those that bad mouth hunters who are actually are the true stewards of the forest and have to give fair chase, (and executing a god given as well as constitutional right to hunt) and you pay to have someone else bash an animal in the head with a mallet or drive a steel spike in the back of their head after living their lives in a box or pen, who is the real coward? I would bet that anyone that responds with, "I'm a vegetarian" should look at their clothing and I would bet money there is an animal that gave up something for what they wear.
 @flyroy I  really doubt he ate any of that meat.
This animal killing coward should lose his 2nd Amendment rights for life.
@browntown What a really ignorant statement. Get back in your Prius and tootle on down to your community garden....I think there is a weed in your lettuce.
 @browntown Idiots like you should lose their 1A rights.
Come the day when you are faced with someone about to shoot you, call the humane society and ask them to send some bears to save you....:)
 @browntown Why? What does the Second Amendment have to do with hunting?
 @browntown That's right.  If he's gonna kill an animal, he should do it hand-to-hand in the arena!  That's how McDonald's does it!
I would say political correctness run amok but these days 'amok' is standard running.
What a bunch of metrosexual fools.
It should be mandatory that before a individual can become the mascot that they harvest an animal with the weapon. Now THAT would make sense.
Looks more like a Kentucky Long Rifle to me than a musket....
 @Ifishsum Yep, percussion and with a double set trigger it looks like.  Single piece stock, too.  I'd need a better picture to tell for sure - or get out my reading glasses.
Â
Hey, a woman can know guns. Â
This is nothing more than political correctness run amok! If WVU chooses to be wimps and pacifist they should not be using the symbol of a mountaineer as a mascot. Mountaineers were real men! Perhaps they should start using a butterfly or a hummingbird.
Â
Â
By the way, SerenityWowz, a musket doesn't have a firing pin. Your comment is a display of your ignorance.
Â
This comment has been deleted
 @SerenityWowz A musket doesn't have a firing pin.
If he missed the bear,THEN you may have an issue.
Wow..I bet WVU couldn't beat the CAL Bears.
Â
I'll bet Jim Rome had a field day with this one too. This story certainly doesn't do much to help erase the stigma that comes with living in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Lousiana, Texas, North and South Carolina, and Arkansas. But this does open up a whole bunch of other mascot faux pa-suh-bilities. Let's say Bennie the Beaver goes and dams up a creek, and the resulting flood kills innocent wildlife in Philomath, or maybe the Portland St. mascot recruits a hord of Viking wannabes, and they go raping and pillaging through the Pearl District. That would be sweet.
A hunting rifle, on a hunting icon, used while hunting.
Â
Why is anyone surprised by that?
Â
What else is a hunting rifle good for? A prop apparently.
Â