The Lumberjack was trying not to cry.
And by Lumberjack, I don’t mean the Lumberjack who is the mascot for Stephen F. Austin, the team that lost to Notre Dame in the final 1.5 seconds on Sunday at Barclays Center in the second round of the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament.
That mascot Lumberjack wielded a purple wooden ax, wore suspenders and skinny Wranglers, and had a long red beard. The Lumberjack I’m talking about was a look-alike: Thomas Walkup, the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks’ star player.
Lean-muscled, tall and intimidating, Walkup looks as if he could chop through a tree trunk with one swing of a blade.