Who is Baylor’s Fringe Monster?

You’ve seen it at Baylor games. The huge, fluffy, flailing mass of green and gold fringe, surrounded by crowds of gawkers and selfie-takers. It takes charge of dance parties, draws the attention of fans and camera crews, and occasionally (and unintentionally) frightens children.

It’s the Fringe Monster.

So who is this diehard Baylor fan? Turns out, it’s a self-described “science nerd” and graduating senior who asked simply to be identified by her first name, Kat.

The Fringe Monster began almost two years ago, when a friend of Kat created the costume with the simple desire to cheer on the Bears with intense, uninhibited spirit. At games, Kat was in charge of speaking for the monster — who was then a silent, flailing beast — and collecting any photos of the monster she found online. Eventually, football season ended, basketball came and went, graduation day passed, and the costume left campus with Kat’s friend.

But though the original costume was gone, the Fringe Monster never left Kat’s mind. “I saw how happy it made people,” she says. “I talk on the forums, I see the tweets, I talk on Reddit to people, and they love it. They think it’s hilarious.” She wanted to keep the tradition going, but couldn’t afford the hundreds of dollars it would take to create an entirely new costume.

It was on one of those forums that something amazing then happened. Users had been asking what happened to the monster, and Kat told them the situation. Within 24 hours, they had collected more than $600 to help offset the cost of a new suit. On top of that, a local retailer was able to help her cut costs by allowing her to purchase hundreds of pompoms at wholesale prices.

Kat got to work. By this time, the 2014 football season was already underway, but she knew the Fringe Monster had to make an appearance at the Baylor-TCU game. Two weeks, 300 pompoms, and four seasons of Gossip Girl later, the Fringe Monster was reborn.

The monster made appearances at nearly every major football game after that: the Baylor-TCU game, Homecoming, College GameDay, etc. “I love Baylor,” Kat says. “I really love this place, and I love making people happy. So I love being able to do that and act my most Baylor-spirited self, without people being like, ‘Look at that weird girl!’”

With Kat graduating in May (she’s headed to dental school), she wanted to pass on the tradition of the Fringe Monster — but not just to anybody. She’s entrusted the costume to the Baylor chapter of Alpha Epsilon Delta, a national honor society for pre-health students, where she made the majority of her Baylor memories. Whoever has the honor of becoming the Fringe Monster at Baylor events, Kat says, must have stamina, dedication, and most of all, Baylor pride.

Sic ’em, Fringe Monster!