The Lucky Wycombe Comanche was the lucky mascot for Wycombe Wanderers Football Club for a number of years in the early 2000s.
On the final game of the 1999-2000 season the team faced a tricky game away at Lincoln City. Earlier in the season when Lawrie Sanchez took over after the departure Neil Smilie, the team has been destined to be relegated. However, back to back wins against Manchester City and Wigan Athletic meant a win at Lincoln would ensure an unlikely survival in Division 2.
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On the way to the ground the team coach passed a second hand shop and in the window was a 5 ft wooden statue of a Red Indian. The team decided that if they won the game and survived relegation they would go back and purchase the figure. Thanks to an 83rd minute winner from Paul Emblen, and roared on by 3000 travelling fans (using 50 coaches laid on by the club) the team won 1-0 and stayed up.
During that summer Terry Gibson, Sanchez’s assistant was entrusted with locating the figure and bringing him to the club. On the first day of training for the new season Gibson arrived at the training ground with the statue to howls of laughter.
The name ‘Comanche’ was given to the figure in honour of Terry Evans, one of the clubs long serving coaches who often used the term ‘Comanche trick’ in training. Beating Lincoln was the biggest ‘Comanche trick’ of them all.
The figure appeared in the centre of the squad photo that year, a story which made the back page of a nation tabloid newspaper. He was given the number 31 squad number that year. Before matches the Comanche was placed on the centre circle for luck. The seasons that followed, with the Comanche as a lucky mascot, were some of the most successful in the club's history-the team reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup after beating Leicester City and Wimbledon FC on the route to a famous show down against Liverpool at Villa Park. The team went down 2-1 thanks to goals from Robbie Fowler and Emile Heskey.
The 2002-2003 season started badly for the Wanderers from Wycombe, and eventually Sanchez and Gibson were relived of their duties, to be replaced with Tony Adams.
No one knew what had happened to the Comanche after this time, but it is believed he left the club with Terry Gibson, and was put into storage.
In July 2008 the local paper, the Bucks Free Press ran a story claiming that the Comanche was for sale on eBay[1] . The article, dated 12/07/08 suggested that “The seller, who is based in Buckhurst Hill, Essex has posted it with a starting price of £99 and fans have until July 19 to make their bids”. The Comanche was removed from eBay before this date leading to many suggesting that it either wasn’t the real Comanche, or that the club had bough him back for a shock return to Adams Park.
However, neither of these rumours transpired to be true, and the Comanche was believed to have been bought by a fan of Wycombe Wanderers and moved to somewhere in Scotland. Prior to this the Comanche was in storage. The new current owner of the Comanche updates his Facebook page regularly, offering predictions for forthcoming matches. He is known for being accurate with his predictions.
On the 10th August it was reported the Comanche had moved back to Buckinghamshire. It is unclear whether he lives in a teepee, wigwam or a house.
Whilst this was the case, the Comanche now lives in a small village on Staffordshire. He was present at the final game of the 2010-2011 game, where Wycombe Wanderers clinched promotion to League 1-proving he hadn't lost his luckiness!
On the 18th August 2010 The Comanche launched his twitter page, @wycombecomanche.
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