Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Traditionally Weird, a weekly series on the oddities and eccentricities of college football, from mascots to rivalries to student-section rituals and (way) beyond.



Like most people who work in sports, Daniel Claxton is used to long hours and late nights. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t get a little loopy at times, or in his words, “somewhat delusional.”



It was the fall of 2013, and as a video producer for the University of Minnesota athletic department, he was working late one night early in the football season when he came up with an idea that would catch on as one of the most creative in-stadium distractions in the country: the “Dramatic Gopher.”



“I was just trying to think of different ways to spice our show up or do something different,” Claxton says. “That could also maybe impact the game and be entertaining at the...