St. John's mascot Thunder has been revived and Long Islander Rob Benigno is the man behind the mask
Admit that you’ve always wondered about it.
Whether watching sporting events in person or on television, you’ve seen the school mascots doing their routines — performing with the cheerleaders, glad-handing fans, mugging for cameras — and you had to be curious whether the person inside the costume with the oversized head is actually smiling during all that.
Huntington-raised Rob Benigno always has worn that smile.
And he was especially bubbly on Jan. 20 at Madison Square Garden when St. John’s faced Marquette and he got to reprise his role as Thunder the Horse as part of St. John’s “Retro Day,” which celebrated the donning of the uniforms first worn in 1994-95 after the school dropped its Native American nickname and became the Red Storm. Thunder was the team’s new mascot.
Benigno will be in the costume again Saturday when St. John’s faces defending national champion and No. 1-ranked Connecticut at the Garden.
Benigno, who went to Whitman High School, was a senior at St. John’s when Thunder was born after the school flirted with Johnny the Lion as a mascot.
“I used to go to the game with my friend Angelo [Sicuranza] and we’d see the Lion and say, ‘We could do better than that,’ ” said Benigno, 53. “We talked to one of our classmates, a cheerleader, and she suggested trying out with the cheerleading coach.”
Benigno first donned the outfit for a game against UConn and continued as the mascot through his years at St. John’s — he earned a graduate degree in international finance — and in the years beyond that. He was Thunder when St. John’s advanced to the Elite Eight in the 1999 NCAA Tournament.
Thunder was replaced by Johnny the Thunderbird approximately 15 years ago.
Benigno has remained connected to St. John’s athletics as a sort of consultant, a volunteer who works with the students — two women and a man — who wear the costume at a variety of events.
“People don’t understand that the expression on your face in the outfit comes out in how you perform,” said Benigno, who works as an information technology consultant. “I always tell the students the motto: ‘Happy Face Brings Style and Grace.’ The costume drapes over your body like a wet rag, so you have to move your entire body to get the right effect. You have to have energy and enthusiasm.”
He said the plan for him to reprise the role of Thunder for the Marquette game came together the night before, sparked by what he called a “campus legend” that there was a person out there who still had the original costume. The Thunder costumes purchased to replace the original had been discarded, Benigno said he was told.
“I didn’t steal it,” Benigno said. “They got new costumes every couple years, and when they got one to replace the one I had, I asked if they’d let me keep it. It’s been in my closet ever since, but I have occasionally taken the head out to show my two kids. But people at the school knew I had it.”
“I knew he had the suit,” said Alex Hromada, St. John’s director of marketing and promotions. “He said he was the original Thunder, and things came together from there.”
Hromada was asked if he had considered putting a student in the costume to reprise the role instead of Benigno.
“He is 53 but he was in real mascot competitions back in the day,” Hromada said. “He’s fully trained, has a passion for it and he wanted to do it. So we were on board.”
Thunder was a hit at the Marquette game, and not only with all the children who wanted to pose for photos with the mascot.
“The reception was incredible,” Benigno said. “Probably a lot of the kids didn’t know Thunder, but there were people in their 40s and 50s who were going crazy about seeing [him] again. People were reaching out to me in the days after, asking if it was me inside like it used to be.”
The years took a toll on the Thunder costume, and Benigno has gotten creative to try to get it into better shape.
“There were some spots where the material on the head had worn away and the plastic on the head was showing through,” he said. “I reached out to the original maker, but they [couldn’t help]. So I ran the body of the suit through the dryer and collected the lint from the lint screen. Then I glued it to the head to cover the open spots.”
Benigno, who now lives in Jamaica Estates, said he purchased and received new hoofs for the costume this week.
Hromada said there currently are no plans for another throwback day this season but added that the team could use the vintage uniforms again.
If the school decides it wants Thunder to “ride again” at another game, the administration will know where to look.
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
