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Dream realized: Pittsburgh native to be mascot for 49ers
By ELISE McKEOWN SKOLNICK
NEW SPRINGFIELD
Robin Adams stands out at family football gatherings. Among a houseful of people wearing black and gold, she’s the lone wearer of red and gold.
In a family of diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fans, Adams is the only San Francisco 49ers fan.
Originally from Pittsburgh, she was a Steelers fan from birth. But the family moved to Ohio when she was 9, and Adams decided it was time to choose a new football team to support. She took a hard look at all of the teams – and chose the 49ers because she liked the color of their uniforms.
Her mother, being a supportive mom, bought her a 49ers T-shirt and hat. Now 51, Adams has never wavered in her support of the 49ers. And, somewhere along the way, she developed a dream to go along with it.
She wanted to be the mascot for the team.
“This has been my dream for years and years, to just one day be the mascot for the 49ers,” Adams said.
She wrote to Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres asking them to make her dream come true, but nothing came of it. Then one day, playing fantasy football online, a contest popped up on her Facebook page. Visa was looking to make someone’s football fantasy come true. She sent a letter, explaining how much she wanted to be the 49ers mascot.
The mascots always seem to be having so much fun, high-fiving people and dancing on the field, she said.
“I just think it’d be the funnest job ever,” she said. “Any fan can sit in a seat and cheer for their team, but you’d be on the sidelines and getting people to yell with you and cheer with you.”
When Visa notified her she was a finalist, she thought it was a joke from a friend.
“They all know I always wanted to do this, and I thought they were pranking me,” she said.
But, not only was she a finalist, she won. A Visa representative called to give her the news.
“She said, ‘You’re going to California,’” Adams said. “I just started crying. I was so excited.”
Adams will be a mascot for the 49ers before kickoff and during the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the St. Louis Rams. The game will be played at Candlestick Park. A special outfit, similar to that of 49ers mascot Sourdough Sam, is being created for her.
She and her husband, Harry, will fly to California on Friday. Adams will attend mascot boot camp, to learn the ropes. She will also practice with Sourdough Sam, for a skit the two will perform.
“It’s going to be exciting,” she said.