You simply cannot be a Boise State Bronco fan without knowing and loving our beloved mascot, Buster Bronco.
He’s everywhere — from high fiving you at the tailgate to posing on posters plastered on the walls of the Student Union Building.
But have you ever wondered who’s behind the suit? The Arbiter spoke with four Boise State alumni who had the honor of donning the Buster Bronco costume.
Tom Pyle | 2020 – 2023
As a freshman, Tom Pyle spontaneously struck up a conversation with Buster Bronco at a basketball game that forever changed the course of his time at Boise State University.
“Buster just walked up to my friend group and sat behind me and started messing around, playing with my hat or whatever. And then, I don’t know why, but I just asked — ‘Hey, Buster, could I try out to be Buster?’ It was just the first question that popped up in my head,” Pyle said.
Buster, with gloves too big to type a number into a phone himself, began spelling out a phone number with his fingers. To Pyle’s surprise, he started receiving texts immediately after he watched Buster disappear into the locker room.
“All of a sudden, the game is still going on and I’m looking at my phone and I start getting texts from this person telling me tryouts are going to be in May,” Pyle said. “It caught me completely off guard — it was literally just right place, right time, right question.”
Once May 2020 came around, Pyle, with no previous mascotting experience, went on to become a passionate Buster Bronco for the next three years.
Pyle describes becoming Buster Bronco as the “best thing” that happened to him in college.
Pyle had a number of standout experiences as Buster Bronco, including storming ExtraMile Arena with fans as a senior when the Broncos Men’s Basketball team beat San Diego State 66-60 in the final three minutes of the Mountain West Championship — thanks to a 14-0 run by former Bronco, Max Rice.
He also notes other memorable events, such as handing out condoms to students at the Student Union Building with University Health Services and trick-or-treating with a local family — dressed up as Mr. Incredible, of course.
Since Buster Bronco’s student athlete role falls under the Spirit Squad, Pyle spent a significant amount of time developing close relationships with the Spirit Squad cheer team, Mane LineDancers and the Blue Thunder Marching Band.
“Even before I was Buster, I already had a good chunk of friends who were in the marching band,” Pyle said. “I had a little bit of drumming experience, so they sometimes would let me hop on the drum kit to play the fight song and jam out with them.”
During his junior year, Pyle was “going ham” on the bass drum during Seven Nation Army when the unthinkable happened.
“I guess I hit it so hard that I kind of tore a hole through the drum. I totally broke it. I was like, ‘Oh no, this is my first time ever touching a bass drum and now the band is going to charge me 100 bucks or something like that.’ To my surprise, they were super cool about it. All the band members loved it and thought it was the most hilarious thing,” Pyle said. “I had people thinking ‘Why is Buster on the bass drum?’ And then all of a sudden, they’re like, ‘Why did Buster just break the bass drum?’”
Tom Pyle is currently enrolled in Southwest Airlines Destination 225 program in Denton, Texas, where he is working towards becoming a full-time pilot over the next two years.
In flight training, soon-to-be pilots create their own call signs for one another. Pyle’s pilot classmates warmly refer to him as “General Buster”, carrying the legacy he left at Boise State into the skies.
Sierra Sandison | 2019-2022
Sierra Sandison’s Top Ten Scholar speech began with a reveal that had been bubbling up for over three years.
“The highlight of my time at Boise State has remained top secret until this week: As you now know, I have spent the past several years crawling into a sweaty horse costume for the honor of being Bronco Nation’s best friend: Buster Bronco,” she said. “While I was trying to reconcile my hyper-feminine, girly side with my identity as an engineer, Buster showed me that deep-down, I also had this class-clown, jock energy side to me that I had never allowed myself to express. I can’t even describe how magical it is to put on a costume and suddenly be best friends with everyone in an entire football stadium.”
The thought of becoming a mascot first entered Sandison’s head as a high schooler when her private Christian school’s administration told her that girls couldn’t be mascots.
“It lit a fire under me,” Sandison said. “Flash forward a few years later, I was at Boise State and saw a poster that said ‘Audition for Buster Bronco’. I didn’t want to show up for auditions and get told again that girls aren’t allowed to be a mascot so I did a bunch of research — talking to all my friends and the student body council, asking things like ‘Do you know anyone who’s been Buster?’”
After finding out that girls really could try out to become Buster, Sandison ended up acing her audition, which consisted of a mile run, push ups and a home-choreographed dance skit to “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X.
Graduating as a Top Ten Scholar and nailing her Buster Bronco tryout aren’tSandison’s only accomplishments — she’s been breaking barriers since day one.
Sandison was crowned Miss Idaho 2014 and is known for creating the #ShowMeYourPump movement after openly wearing her insulin pump on the Miss America stage. The campaign inspired thousands of people with diabetes to share pictures of their insulin pumps with pride.
“The funny thing is that I went from being Miss Idaho and in pageants to learning how to behave as Buster — it was literally the opposite of my modeling training,” Sandison said. “Being a pageant girl, you’re supposed to be perfect and proper all the time. Being Buster, there’s not really that many rules. You get to play pranks and do whatever the hell you want. They were both very eye opening, polar opposite experiences.”
At the same time that Sandison was Buster, she was also a mechanical engineering intern with It’s Alive Labs, an animatronic toy company. There, she and her coworkers created many of the props Buster still uses today, including the infamous iPhone he uses to light-up the stadium alongside fans.
Sierra Sandison is now continuing her engineering work as a design engineer for Trademark, a specialty multidisciplinary design studio based in Boise, Idaho.
Navey Uasike | 2015 – 2016, 2018 – 2021
“Buster is the absolute heart and soul of Bronco Nation,” Uasike said. “Boise quickly became my home away from home. I was just a kid from Arizona that went to Boise State specifically for Bronco Nation and the atmosphere that they brought.”
Navey Uasike started mascotting at an early age as a member of her elementary school’s student council. When deciding which college to attend, Uasike wasn’t weighing the factors that most prospective students do. She was thinking about which mascot character felt like the best fit for her.
Buster and his blue turf hit the mark.
Uasike notes that mascotting always came easy to her. Her passion is evident in every single way she talks about it.
“I kind of have just always loved it,” Uasike said. “I love the idea of being able to use dance and being a character to make people smile and make people laugh. It was a way for me to include everybody.”
In 2019, Uasike had the opportunity to sing “Friends in Low Places” as Buster alongside Garth Brooks during his iconic blue turf show, the first major concert event hosted at the Albertsons Stadium.
“That was such a special experience for me,” Uasike said. “Leading up to that point, I had kind of always been the backup [Buster], there was always somebody in front of me through seniority. With Garth, I was on stage in front of thousands and thousands of people. It was such a cool moment and thing to be a part of — it felt like my dreams were coming true. Like, I am THE Buster Bronco.”
Keeping huge moments like this to herself was difficult but made for a fun reveal, Uasike said.
In order to maintain anonymity, Uasike would tell her curious classmates and dorm suitemates that she was an equipment manager for the Spirit Squad.
“[Other Buster Broncos and I] had a lot of fun with our cover stories, but it did make it hard sometimes, because Busters don’t typically get any type of recognition. In a way, you want to get credit for all the amazing work you’re doing and all the hard work you’re putting in, but you have to be anonymous,” Uasike said. “It was surreal to represent the university in that way and maintain the character of Buster. He’s like the cool jock on campus, the cool type of ladies guy.”
When Uasike graduated, she revealed her “secret identity” of Buster Bronco via social media. By that point, she notes that the majority of her friends had “put two and two together”.
Navey Uasike is set to graduate in June of 2025 with her Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy from A.T. Still University in Mesa, Arizona. She hopes to be working in hand therapy by the end of 2025.
Nathaniel Wilder | 2012 – 2014
Nathaniel Wilder was in middle school when a member of Timberline High School’s cheer team noticed his striking sideline spirit.
“She was like ‘Hey, you should come tryout to be our mascot’,” Wilder said.
Timberline’s mascot is a wolf and was known at the time as “The Boss”. Balancing the roles of being a varsity baseball player and a mascot, he remained in this role all throughout his high school years.
Wilder notes that his transition from being a high school mascot to a college mascot was significant.
“High school was a lot of parading the sidelines and attending games, but a lot more went into it here at Boise State,” Wilder said. “You had to get multiple formations down and try to do tumbling and backflips.”
Wilder jokes that he was “definitely more ground based” than other Buster Broncos. Despite never quite getting the backflips down, his spirit shined through in different ways.
His favorite things to do as Buster Bronco was raise student morale and aim to create a “home field advantage” through joy at each and every game and community event he attended.
The memory as Buster that sticks out the most to Wilder was when Boise State played the Air Force Academy in September 2013. Only a few days before the game, Wilder had found out that his brother had taken his own life.
When the Spirit Squad found out about his loss, they made a sign of hope for him when he returned to the blue turf the next day.
When asked what it was like to have a community at Boise State during a time of immense hardship, Wilder described it as “everything”.
“It’s part of how I got through that week and how I get through these days as well too,” Wilder said. “It was really powerful for me.”
Wilder notes that nearing the end of the game, a large rainbow appeared on Boise State’s side of the field, something he believed to be a sign from his late brother.
“I like to think of it like my brother was watching over me during that game,” Wilder said.
Nathaniel Wilder remains passionate about the community as a Nutrition Technician at the Saint Alphonsus Regional Rehabilitation Center. There, he aids patients by providing them their preferred meals, as well as preps food and restocks the kitchen.
To be Buster Bronco, one must embody the spirit, energy and heart of Boise State.
From Pyle’s spontaneity, Sandison’s innovation, Uasike’s dedication and Wilder’s resilience — each individual who has taken on the role of Buster has left a lasting impact on our university.
As these alumni continue to shine in their lives both professionally and personally, their stories remain as living proof that once you’re a part of Bronco Nation, you never truly leave it.
