Dan Meers is an unassuming gent from St. Charles, Missouri. He has a wife, three kids and two grandkids. He has a quiet kind of charm, one of those folksy wisdom types of fellows. But something in him—maybe boredom, maybe the itch for something strange—led him to a world of wearing big furry suits and funny masks and acting like a possessed creature for amped-up strangers.
Meers is the KC Wolf mascot—or was. He’s widely regarded as one of the best mascots in the business. In 2006, KC Wolf was the first NFL mascot to be inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame (KC Royals mascot Sluggerrr followed in 2017), and the first and only mascot to be inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Meers, with his self-depreciating humor, says that mascots, including himself, are about “three peas short of a casserole.”
Meers’ mascot journey began at the University of Missouri in 1986. He was just your average college student trying to figure out what to do with his life. “It’s not like I set out to become a mascot,” Meers says. “I didn’t even know you could be a mascot, at least professionally.”
He saw a notice in the school newspaper about tryouts to be the MU mascot, Truman the Tiger. “I’m like, ‘Well, that sounds kind of interesting.’ So I went to this informational meeting, I tried out, and sure enough, I got the job.”
After graduation in 1990, he got the mascot job for the St. Louis Cardinals as Fredbird. “Then I got a call out of the blue from the Kansas City Chiefs that said they were starting up a new program with this KC Wolf character,” Meers says. “In professional baseball, they play 81 home games in the summertime. Professional football plays 10 home games in the fall and the winter. And most mascot costumes are hot. Baseball games can be long. So I was ready to make the change to the NFL.”
The Chiefs wanted a “director of shenanigans,” a character with character wearing that 30-pound costume—with the eight-pound head piece, 85-inch-wide hips and size 23 shoes—who would at times be dressed in a wild-looking outfit and act out all kinds of crowd-pleasing mischief.
Meers thought he would do the mascot thing for a couple of years and then get a real job like everybody else. He officially started with the KC Chiefs in time for the 1989 season. Since then, Meers has appeared in 307 regular-season and postseason games during his career and 375 overall, including all five Super Bowls, according to the NFL.
As soon as he buckles on that KC Wolf head, the mild-mannered 6-foot-3, 185-pound Meers turns into a 7-foot-tall crowd-pleasing rogue. Sometimes he’s an Elvis impersonator, or maybe Santa Claus during the holidays, but he’s always a fan favorite who taunts opponents, faces down Darth Vader and goofs along with cheerleaders. Meers will bang his head on the goal posts when the opposing team kicks a field goal, living out the exasperation of every Chiefs fan. “Yeah, I kind of take on a new personality,” he says. “But I just tried to go out to have fun and even act a little tough, make the crowd laugh. But I always followed what my grandma taught me: It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
After 35 years on the job, Meers says he’s ready to call it quits. He has been doing the gig longer than any other mascot. “I told the Chiefs, ‘Hey, I want to be a full-time grandpa and a part-time mascot,’” Meers says. “It was the best time for me to step back and kind of take a backup role instead of being the head hog in the trough any longer.”
He announced his retirement on National Mascot Day, June 17, 2025.
Meers’ mascot role was more than just jazzing up Chiefs fans. He traveled to other sports venues around the country and around the world. “I also did countless appearances outside of the game,” he says. “I think it was close to 10,000 appearances at birthdays and weddings and nursing homes and parades and games and schools and churches and bar mitzvahs. You name it. I walked five women down the aisle on their wedding day as KC Wolf,” he says. “The fun part of the job is the people you meet and the relationships you build with folks.”
Meers may have had his last official howl, but not to worry: There’s a new wolf ready to wow the kingdom. Meers recently spent time with the 24-year-old yet-to-be-identified Wolf in the making. “I spent three hours with him yesterday, and I am supposed to spend more time with him next week,” he says. “The costume’s not going to change with the new guy. And hopefully you won’t even notice too many of the mannerisms changing that much.”
