The beloved 49ers mascot that fans say died of a broken heart |
As the San Francisco 49ers prepare for the divisional round of the playoffs, one major thing separates them from the rest of the competition in the NFC: They’re the only remaining team in the conference without an animal mascot.
Their upcoming opponent, the Seattle Seahawks, take this differentiating element a step further by having a live augur hawk named Taima soar around the stadium as the home team runs onto the field, with some players even needing to pet their flying mascot for good luck before kickoff. Should the Niners pull off an upset for a second straight weekend, they’ll face either the Bears or the Rams, without any animal representation to speak of for themselves.
However, it wasn’t always like this for San Francisco’s football team. Just over 70 years ago, the 49ers had a living, breathing animal of their own on the sidelines during game day that leaned into the theme of the nickname well before the first Sourdough Sam costume was stitched together. Her name was Clementine the Mule.
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Clementine’s origins date back to the 1954 season. George Pottorf, a lifelong 49ers fan, believed there was an implied additional character in the team’s logo. Since the Niners nickname referenced the prospectors from the California Gold Rush of 1849, and a miner at the time would have almost certainly had a trusty burro by his side, it only made sense that the team had that kind of animal as a mascot. The name Clementine then became a natural fit, since the folk song it references, “Oh, My Darling Clementine,” includes “forty-niner” as a lyric.
As luck would have it, Pottorf’s father, George Sr., had recently purchased a young female donkey — “Mule” was a misnomer that just stuck — from south of the border. Through his connections as a public relations executive for Pan American at the time, the younger Pottorf arranged an exhibition match against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Tucson, where his parents and their newly acquired animal resided. Pan Am flights would not only help the Niners get to the game; they would help bring Clementine back.
Clementine the donkey with two kids at Kezar Stadium during a game between the 49ers and Washington’s football team, Sept. 26, 1954.
News quickly spread about this new addition to the team. On Sept. 5, 1954, the San Francisco Chronicle published a story by legendary sportswriter Art Rosenbaum........