New Brunswick's Field Day Fox Makes Debut, to the Joy of Kids of All Ages

NEW BRUNSWICK – Field Day Fox bounded off the back of a utility vehicle and began to frantically wave to the Roosevelt Elementary School students who had gathered on the steps of City Hall.

The New Brunswick High School Marching Band played loud and proud, cheerleaders twirled their pompoms and the furry fox with the sly smile and bushy tail made children of all of us when he made his debut on Thursday morning.

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For the man behind the mask, he was almost forced to miss all the excitement.

Michael Tublin, who runs the Sister Cities program under the Department of Human and Community Services, spent Tuesday afternoon at Willow Grove Cemetery. He was clearing the graves of the seven Japanese men and one baby girl – some with connections to Rutgers - who were buried there about 150 years ago.

“I wanted to clear the graves because some Japanese dignitaries, including the ambassador consulate general from New York, were coming on Wednesday,” Tublin said. “And, it turns out, I tweaked my back and I couldn’t move Tuesday night. I’ve never had that much pain.”

It was so bad, he alerted Superintendent of Recreation Ivan Adorno that he might not be able to suit up on Thursday morning.

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“It was about 4 o’clock and I said, ‘Ivan, are there any possible replacements?’ He was like, ‘No,’ ” Tublin said Thursday while gingerly peeling off the costume in City Council Chambers, which had been turned into a temporary locker room.

Tublin’s aching back was touch-and-go through Wednesday night, but thanks to some rest and some Advil, he felt better on Thursday morning.

And he’s thankful he did.

Dancing alongside the New Brunswick School District’s Zebra, Middlesex College’s Bolt the Colt, Rutgers’ Sir Henry and the Somerset Patriots’ Sparkee, he saw firsthand how a mascot can melt away invisible barriers and make even the most self-conscious adult crack a smile – if not launch into cheering.

And then there were the schoolchildren, from elementary-school age up to high-schoolers, who couldn’t wait to give Field Day Fox hugs and high-fives.

“It’s an incredible feeling to be able to make a child smile,” Tublin said.

The brainchild of Keith Jones II, the director of the city’s Department of Human and Community Services, the plan is for Field Day Fox to be a city ambassador here, there, and everywhere around town. Every parade, arts festival, ribbon-cutting ceremony and bocce ball showdown at the Senior Citizen Resource Center, you can expect to see him and his trademark New Brunswick Recreation T-shirt.

The introduction of Field Day Fox was also a milestone moment for the Recreation Department, which has introduced several new sports programs over the past few years and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the refurbished fitness center in June.

“Four or five years ago, when we started the Department of Community Services, rec was one of the projects that was given to the department,” Jones said. “At the time, we all knew what rec was. And I can say today that Field Day Fox isn’t just this beacon of open joy and love and greatness and fun and community, but for my rec squad and the city and the department, this is also a beacon of how far rec has come in a short amount of time.”

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