EAST LANSING, Mich. — Ross Ramsey enjoys spending time with fellow alums at Michigan State football tailgates.

These aren’t just any old former Spartans, though.

They were Sparty himself – something few knew when Ramsey and his pals donned the muscular mascot suit two decades ago.

“Once you are done being Sparty, you can tell others that you were Sparty,” said Ramsey, a physician and hospital administrator in Pigeon, Michigan. “And clearly you have a close bond with those others who were in the same role as you, because they couldn’t share that experience with anyone else at the time, either.”

Ramsey and his buddies are members of an elite fellowship of ex-mascots. Men and women who once carried on as Big Al, Alabama’s lovable elephant; the Disney-inspired Oregon Duck; Wisconsin’s Bucky Badger and many more. We’re talking humans in suits, not live animal mascots, which also are fixtures on college football Saturdays.

The job for costumed mascots is to fire up the crowd, bring a smile to a fan’s face and symbolically represent the university.

“When you think of Michigan State, you think of Sparty. And everybody knows what the mascot is,” said Phil Lator, another former Sparty who joins Ramsey at the tailgates and also successfully concealed his alter ego during his tenure in East Lansing.

Anonymity is the name of the game for many college mascots.

“Some programs value secrecy so highly that multiple performers report to the stadium but only learn in the moment who will actually be suiting up,” said Jeff Birdsell, a communication professor at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. Birdsell has experience in these matters, having served as Point Loma’s mascot as an undergrad, as well as inhabiting suits for minor league baseball, NBA G League and indoor soccer teams.

“Some schools have traditions where they work hard to keep the performers anonymous so that there can be a big reveal as part of graduation ceremonies,” he said.