Mardi Gras Mike outside Charles Schwab Field Omaha. Photo Credit: Kern Studios
Steven Milam, Jared Jones and Kade Anderson aren’t the only LSU stars taking Omaha by storm this week.
Mardi Gras Mike has been the talk of the town.
Mardi Gras Mike is a 30-foot sculpture of a tiger, created by Kern Studios of New Orleans, which creates parade floats for parades in New Orleans and all over the world.
He was finished just as LSU beat West Virginia to punch its ticket to the College World Series; and as the team boarded its flight to Omaha, Mardi Gras Mike started making his way there, stopping in places like Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Kansas City along the way.
Barry Kern, the president and CEO of Kern Studios, says Mardi Gras Mike has been hitting the town all week long, and that’s going to continue as LSU takes the field for the championship series against Coastal Carolina.
“He’s going to be driving back around all over town Saturday and Sunday,” says Kern, “and hopefully he’s on his way back on Monday because we don’t want to need a Monday game.”
As he’s being wheeled throughout the city on a flatbed trailer, speakers play a very special playlist that include LSU’s greatest hits, including “Louisiana Saturday Night,” “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” and the LSU fight song.
Kern says he got the inspiration to create the sculpture when he saw how much fun LSU fans were having during the Tiger Walk before their home football game against Ole Miss last season.
“I said, man, wouldn’t it be really cool if there was a giant tiger that was coming down as part of the tiger walk, wouldn’t that be really cool? And so we basically just built it,” Kern says.
Kern says after the College World Series, Mardi Gras Mike will be a part of the greater LSU community – not just athletics – for many years to come.
“I expect that you will find it is going to be a staple of LSU athletics and events for many, many years to come,” says Kern. “I can see it for the Tiger Walk. I can see it outside of the stadiums. I can see at any time that there’s any kind of activation, whether it’s LSU athletics, or anything LSU for that matter. The tiger is a symbol of LSU and Louisiana, and I think there are a lot of places that it can be used.”
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