Both John Bennion and Chris Dowling came to BYU with the intent to play basketball, but ended up in a different role than they expected as Cosmo the Cougar.
While Bennion was on his mission, Dowling ruptured his patellar tendon, making him unable to play basketball. So he decided it was time to try out for Cosmo.
"I rehabbed my junior year, and then my senior year, I thought, it'd be fun to be Cosmo. I'd be good at it," Dowling said.
Dowling contacted the vice president of athletics about the idea.
"I asked him if I could be Cosmo, and he said, 'Sure.' That was it," Dowling said.
After this short interaction, Dowling started preparing.
"I tried to come up with some kind of creative skit or something for every game, even if it was just a minute," Dowling said.
His first game with a band. He hopped on a motorcycle and donned a leather jacket, but couldn't see very well through the tiny eyehole of the Cosmo suit.
"I never once thought about braking," Dowling said about his experience.
That is, until he hit a rope at the end of the field.
"I tumbled all around, and the fans were cheering and then when I crashed it was like 40,000 people went 'oof,'" Dowling said.
Though he felt like his whole body was sprained and his face was covered with scratches from the mask, he continued the show.
"In spite of that, I jumped up... and everyone started cheering again," Dowling said.
His other stunts included performing on stilts, shooting half-court shots and riding a unicycle.
"Chris loaned me his unicycle," John Bennion, the next Cosmo said, "He had done a fantastic job and I thought, well, ok I'll try to ride the unicycle."
He spent the summer practicing his unicycle skills to play the part. One of his highlights included a skit he started with the U of U mascot, Swoop, using the steel prong at the bottom of the end zone flag.
"I would chase him all over the field and then he fell down and I acted like I put it through him," Bennion said. "You'd never get away with that these days."
Bennion was part of the ROTC. They helped him with a stunt by dropping him off on the football field by helicopter.
"I said, 'Hey, do you think you could take me in a helicopter and drop me off at the football stadium?' and they said 'Yeah, I think we can do that,'" said Bennion.
It was through the ROTC that he met his wife.
"The officers came up to me and said, 'We just want you to know there's a real cute member of the girls' sponsor corps, and she wants to go on a date with you," Bennion said.
When she attended his unveiling event, she realized she knew who he was.
"I've been had," Sondra Bennion said about the experience. "I bet his name is John Bennion."
Chris Dowling and John Bennion have been friends since their time at BYU and say they feel grateful for the opportunity to be part of the community.
"The greatest part of Cosmo, I think, is the anonymity," Dowling said. "You put that head on and you do things that you never thought you'd do or could do."
"I'm glad I ended up as Cosmo instead of a long-forgotten basketball player," Dowling said.