We’re still basking in the afterglow of Beyoncé announcing her upcoming country album, just in time for rodeo season to giddy up. But Queen Bey needs to two-step aside, because right now, it’s Howdy’s time to shine as Houston’s beacon of fashion and festiveness. He emerges every year like Venus upon the shore to signal the arrival of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR), if Venus was a “Bowlegged H” in western wear.

Now, as decades of Sesame Street have taught us, sentient letters are very real entities that walk among us daily. Houstonia would like to apologize to Texans for the results of our hard-hitting journalism publicly revealing that Howdy, the rodeo’s official mascot, is actually just that… a mascot. Humans inside a costume, their identities locked down with Fort Knoxian precision.

(Not really: They’re all members of the Parade Committee, but they’re never going to tell you who is who on any given day. Though we did hear that nobody six feet tall or over can fit in the suit.)

“The way the Parade Committee runs is we have a little subcommittee, and our subcommittee has a vice chairman, Dennis Bartel. He’s in charge of Howdy,” John Hantak, chairman of the Parade Committee at Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, says. “I think we have seven or eight people that get into the suit, and then we have a number of others that are his handlers.”

Howdy’s handlers juggle multiple responsibilities, including serving as his translators—he’s the strong, silent type—and helping him move around, since visibility inside the suit is limited. At the rodeo itself, he makes an appearance every night during the festivities and takes part in the grand entry and auctions. And where there’s food, there’s Howdy. The rodeo’s official website states that, like a true Texan, he’s especially fond of “deep-fried Oreos and barbecue.”

Given his ubiquity, friendly demeanor, and predilection for showing up for good causes, Howdy can be considered something of a local superhero. And like most superheroes, he has an origin story. Fortunately, it isn’t a grim and gritty one, which is probably why he wears a perpetual smile.

Like Southwest Airlines (without the whole lobbying against high-speed rail thing), Howdy began his life as a napkin doodle. Hap Hunnicutt, former chairman of the Parade Committee and current executive chair at HLSR (not to mention co-grand marshal of last year’s parade) created him in 1993.

“[The Parade Committee was] looking for ways to excite the crowd and interact with the crowd, things of that nature,” says Hantak. “And who doesn't love a mascot?... He was thinking cowboy, Houston… He brought it to life.”

Howdy is a stylized letter H, for Houston, clad in a jaunty cowboy hat, gloves, and cowboy boots. His legs curve outward to give the impression of a gait molded by a life of horseback riding (it is not advisable for actual Howdys to ride on horseback), and he sports a bushy blue mustache and eyebrows. With his orange complexion, one can be forgiven for presuming he’s meant to match the Astros’ or Dynamo’s team colors. Apologies to any Aggies reading this, but the burnt orange is deliberately intended as an homage to Hunnicutt’s alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin. His white cowpoke duds are intentional as well, evoking the uniforms worn by the Longhorn Band.

While Howdy is born to rodeo, he isn’t a fair-weather cowboy. Hantak estimates that the rodeo’s venerable mascot “does about 180 appearances throughout the year,” including the Downtown Rodeo Parade (naturally!), Annual H-E-B Thanksgiving Day Parade, City of Pasadena Rodeo, Aramco Half Marathon, Chevron Houston Marathon, and Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure. Eagle-eyed Houstonians may also spot him at Rockets games, Make-A-Wish Foundation fundraisers, and private events throughout the year. In 2023 alone, Howdy’s travels logged around 8,143 miles, according to Hantak, making him a strong candidate for the Sir Michael Palin of mascottery. Anyone interested in hiring Howdy for their event can fill out a form on the rodeo’s website—the mascot is by Houstonians, for Houstonians, after all.

It takes a lot of stamina to keep up with the demands of Howdydom. Mascot costumes are notoriously sweltering, especially in a humid subtropical climate. Howdys are expected to interact with a public they can barely see, giving hugs and high fives and taking photos for hours. While Hantak thoroughly enjoyed his brief stint in the suit, calling the experience “really fun” and declaring that he “would do it again,” he does note that it takes some rigor and vigor for Parade Committee members to earn a spot on the mascot roster.

“If you volunteer or asked to be a Howdy, we try you out. So you get a little bit of an audition and if you work well with the crowd,” Hantak says. “Dennis and the team evaluate you and then we decide whether you’re good enough.”

Being over the requisite six-foot height limit, Hantak didn’t last long in Howdydom. He made an appearance at a Parade Committee event to get new members hyped up to possibly play the Bowlegged H himself.

“We bring in new committee men every year to fill in for attrition and things of that nature. So we were meeting our rookie committee men, a happy hour, if you will,” Hantak says. “To begin the meeting, I went in as Howdy.”

Funnily enough, even the mascot’s inventor, Hunnicutt himself, has yet to don the Howdy suit, as he is over six feet tall. As Hantak tells it, Hunnicutt was thinking to himself and a couple other buddies, “How do I make it so that I don’t ever have to get in the suit?” The answer, Hantak says: “Design the suit so that you can’t get in it! You won’t fit in it if you’re not under five foot 10 or five foot 11.”

Hantak also notes that Howdy’s design has barely changed since 1993. There’s little to improve on Hunnicutt’s original vision, since it’s the perfect amalgamation of what the rodeo is: campy cowboy fun with a uniquely Houston attitude.

If only they would confirm or deny those rumors about Howdy and Miss Moo…