Colorado gold mine tour guide who died in accident was once "Billy Cub" mascot outside Wrigley Field
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Tributes poured Friday in for Patrick Weier, one of the men behind Billy Cub—the former unofficial Cubs mascot who posed for photos for years with fans outside Wrigley Field.
Weier, 46, was killed in an accident at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine in Colorado, where he worked as a tour guide. He was with 10 others on an elevator when it malfunctioned Thursday.
The accident that caused Weier's death happened 500 feet underground on the elevator in one of the mine's shafts, CBS News Colorado reported. Four others were also injured, and the group on Weier's tour were brought up to the surface afterward. Mental health and emergency response teams met them there.
Weier's brother, John Paul Weier, created Billy Cub. In a 2007 Chicago Reader article, John Paul Weier usually stood outside the Friendly Confines in the mascot bear suit for three or four hours before games and two or three hours after. He told the paper he had always wondered why the Cubs had never had a mascot at the time.
Patrick Weier also got in the Billy Cub suit outside Wrigley Field—and in April 2014, he made headlines for a bar fight at the old John Barleycorn, formerly at 3524 N. Clark St. The fight happened when someone ripped off the head of the costume—and went viral on YouTube.
After that incident, Patrick Weier talked with the late Mike Parker on what was then CBS 2 News.
"A guy came out of nowhere and blindsided me from behind and tried tackling me. I turned and pushed him off of me, and then he came up, removed the head, wouldn't give it back—and I threw a punch at him," Patrick Weier said in April 2014. "As soon as the head came off, I knew it was him, and as soon as I punched him, the bouncers all came in, and they broke it up, threw him out the door. He walks up to a character like that and removes the head, there's going to be some sort of repercussion."
The Cubs went on a couple of months later to file a lawsuit against the Weier brothers, seeking to stop them from dressing as Billy Cub as a Cubs mascot without the team's permission. By that time, the Cubs had an official mascot, Clark the Cub, introduced in January 2014.
But many fans turned out in support of Billy Cub after the brawl.
Patrick Weier was one of eight children and a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He is survived by his 7-year-old son, Anthony. A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family.