{"id":17,"date":"2017-08-10T07:26:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-10T07:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/?p=17"},"modified":"2020-04-15T07:21:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T07:21:51","slug":"foferview-with-billy-the-badgers-creator-kyle-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/?p=17","title":{"rendered":"FOF’erview with Billy the Badger\u2019s creator, Kyle Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever wondered how Billy the Badger was created and came to be?\u00a0 Well lucky for us our very own Dannyboi just happens to be a mate of Kyle Jackson, the inspiration behind Billy the Badger, and recently he sat down to have just such a chat.
\n<\/em><\/span>
\nDannyboi<\/strong> – What made you a Fulham fan?\u00a0 Did anyone influenced you in becoming a fan?
\nKyle<\/strong> – I moved to the UK when I was 8 from South Africa.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know much about football, and first called myself an Arsenal fan!\u00a0 When I started to play football myself (and wised up), I was a goalkeeper. My mum\u2019s family is Dutch and Van der Sar soon became my favorite player in the national team… So it was Edwin who got me in to Fulham!<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – How long have you been supporting the club?
\nKyle<\/em> – I think the first season I could call myself a \u201creal\u201d fan was the 2003\/2004 season. My favourite shirt is from that season!<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – What has been your most favorite memory from being a Fulham fan?
\nKyle<\/strong> – The European games must be up there.\u00a0 That season I was lucky enough to go to Basel, Turin, Hamburg (twice), Belfast, and Twente.\u00a0 Made some amazing memories and some great friends.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – What has been your worst memory from being a Fulham Fan?
\nKyle<\/strong> – Obviously getting relegated wasn\u2019t fun and the following couple years didn\u2019t get much better.\u00a0 Those were the 3 seasons I gave up my season ticket as I moved out to Singapore so at least I didn\u2019t experience too much of it.\u00a0 I have to say though, I think my worst memory was when we lost Dembele and Dempsey.\u00a0 We had such great potential that season.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi <\/strong>– What led you and inspired you to create Billy tthe Badger?
\nKyle<\/strong> – The club had an online competition.\u00a0 At the time, there was a viral video involving dancing badgers, mushrooms and a snake.\u00a0 Back then a friend of mine, who is a Cambridge fan, and I both would put our team shirts on.\u00a0 The team shirts said badger and we would wear them to play in a 6-a-side team called the Cambridge badgers.\u00a0 So, when I saw the competition I thought a badger would work well.\u00a0 So, I sent a picture in of a badger.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi <\/strong>– How old were you when you did this?
\nKyle <\/strong>– I think I was around 12 years old.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – Were there any other reasons for coming up with a badger, other than your experience in Cambridge?
\nKlye<\/strong> – When I sent the picture in of the badger, I included a brief reason of why the Fulham mascot should be a badger.\u00a0 Badgers are black and white and are traditionally British just like Fulham.\u00a0 Badgers also live in big families and Fulham is a big family.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – Do you have any drawings or sketches of your original design?
\nKyle<\/strong> – Unfortunately I don\u2019t.\u00a0 The club did send me some pictures but that laptop that I had them stored on died many years ago.\u00a0 I should really get in touch with the club and see if they have any in the archive.\u00a0 I also keep meaning to ask if I could have a costume!<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – Did you get anything out of creating Billy from the club?\u00a0 An award or a plaque?
\nKyle <\/strong>– I got 2 free tickets to see us play against Arsenal.\u00a0 That was my first game!\u00a0 We lost 4-0 in that match and Henry got a standing ovation.\u00a0 I also got a goodie bad that a had keychain, stickers, book, etc.\u00a0 Funny thing is I had to buy my own Billy the Badger toy when they first came out, ha-ha.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – Did the experience of creating Billy have any effect on your future choices for a career?\u00a0 What do you do now for a living?
\nKyle<\/strong> – I actually went on to study marketing at university.\u00a0 Then I went on to running pubs where I did do a lot of design work and digital marketing.\u00a0 Since then though I\u2019ve gone into more of a normal office job.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> –\u00a0 What is your favorite memory of Billy?
\nKyle<\/strong> –\u00a0 I love it when Billy gets into the spot light, especially during games.\u00a0 I remember things like Billy \u201cAttacking\u201d Avram Grant and being sent off for staying on the pitch break-dancing for too long.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – Have you heard of Sir Craven of Cottage and do you know what he looks like? If yes, would you be nervous for Billy if I told you I’ve heard he’s making a comeback.
\nKyle<\/strong> Who? ……Just kidding. I’ve heard of and seen Sir Craven (not in the flesh). I wouldn’t be too nervous, he just looked very sun burnt. Didnt Dabs.com have a mascot? Was it a computer? ……now there’s a challenger haha!<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> – As you mentioned above Billy is not shy of getting into a confrontation like the Avram Grant spat. If given the opportunity to have a boxing match with one of these three, who would he pick? Chelsea’s Stamford the Lion, Brentford’s Buzz Bee or Qpr’s Ian Holloway?
\nKyle<\/strong> Well I’m speaking on behalf of my “son”. I’m sure he’d be happy to take them all on. In case there are youngsters reading I won’t go into too much detail on how things would unfold\u00a0 \":dft011:\"\u00a0 [dannyboi pushing for him to pick one]……oh I guess it has to be Qpr’s Ian Holloway lol.<\/p>\n

Dannyboi<\/strong> –\u00a0 What do you think Billy brings to Fulham and its fans?
\nKyle<\/strong> –\u00a0 This is my favorite thing; the kids do really seem to love him and lots of friends tell me he is a real favorite of their kids.<\/p>\n

FoF would like to think Mr. Kyle Jackson for his time in answering these questions.\u00a0 We would also like to thank Mr. Jackson for having the creativity to come up with our Club’s beloved Billy the Badger.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever wondered how Billy the Badger was created and came to be?\u00a0 Well lucky for us our very own Dannyboi just happens to be a mate of Kyle Jackson, the inspiration behind Billy the Badger, and recently he sat down to have just such a chat. Dannyboi – What made you a Fulham … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “FOF’erview with Billy the Badger\u2019s creator, Kyle Jackson”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10,4],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foferview","tag-billy-the-badger","tag-fulham-fc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/18"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.friendsoffulham.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}