KC Wolf lauds DARE grads

Youngsters completing the DARE program this year got a furry salute Monday from KC Wolf, the official mascot of the Kansas City Chiefs.

January 25, 2022 - 10:14 AM

Rachel Palmer, a fifth-grade teacher at Iola Middle School, poses for a selfie with KC Wolf, the official mascot of the Kansas City Chiefs. Dan Mears, who has donned the wolf costume for the past 32 years, was the keynote speaker at Monday’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) commencement. Photo by Richard Luken

Fresh from rooting on the Kansas City Chiefs to one of their most exciting wins in team history a day earlier, Dan Mears was in Iola Monday to cheer a group of Iola Middle School fifth-graders.

Mears is known more for the costume he dons each Sunday at Chiefs home games as KC Wolf, a job he’s held for the past 32 years.

And while it was a treat cheering at “that boring old football game,” — a 42-36 overtime playoff victory over Buffalo — Mears told the fifth-graders he was equally enamored with what they’ve done in completing a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.

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