A jacket decorated with hot pink ostrich feathers worn by Louisiana State University Women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey is headed from the basketball court to the baseball diamond this weekend.
Austin Huff, co-host of Melissa and Austin on WUSN-FM and co-host of A to Z Sports Podcast Network in Chicago, kicked off the jacket’s journey with a tweet. Now, it and its designer are headed to Wrigley Field in Chicago for a Cubs game. Huff joined WWL’s Newell Normand to explain how it all went down.
“I can’t make this up – like it is the weirdest, wildest saga that I could have ever even envisioned. I never would have guessed it led us to this,” he said.
As the LSU Tigers played their way to a national championship this year, Mulkey made a splash by wearing fabulous suit jackets on the court. In his March 24 tweet, Huff said that if he got 5,000 likes, he would buy a specific Mulkey jacket and wear it to a Cubs game.
This one features a floral-over plaid design in addition to the feathers.
While Huff didn’t expect the tweet to get 5,000 likes, it actually got much more.
“I legitimately was just doing it as a joke because I thought the… the visual of me sitting at Wrigley with this jacket on was just funny in and of itself,” he explained. “Apparently so did 18,000 other people because they liked the tweet.”
Huff told Normand that he does have some money set aside for social media antics. However, not $4,000, which was the price tag for the jacket.
“I got in touch with the designer [Martha Gottwald] who is actually an LSU grad football who owns Neu Byrne, which is a fashion company,” he said. She explained that it is a one-of-a-kind couture runway jacket.
Gottwald has seen Huff’s tweet and she thought it was “hilarious,” and sent it for him to wear free of charge.
“To her credit, she's one of the coolest people around because she has completely bought into this,” said Huff. Gottwald is even planning to come to the Cubs-Dodgers game this Saturday to see the jacket in action.
As Huff waited for the jacket to arrive via UPS, he briefly wondered if he was getting catfished. Then, he received it in a crushed package.
“It was like the delivery person was a Utah Utes fan or something,” he said, referencing the team LSU was playing when he sent the tweet. Luckily, the jacket wasn’t harmed. “I unzip it, try it on, I will admit [it is] little snug, but it does [fit],” he added.
“You were stylin’,” Normand assured him.
Those interested in the jacket’s trip to Wrigley can follow along on Huff’s blog, Korked Bats. His unboxing video is posted on the site here.
“I’m literally I’m pinching myself right now,” said Huff. Listen to his full conversation with Normand here.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
Related
Related
