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He was covered in mud when pulled from the river, and had lost both legs and hands, not to mention his glasses. But Colonel Sanders still had his trademark smile, 24 years later.
A statue of the KFC mascot has been found in a river in Osaka, a city official said Wednesday, nearly a quarter century after being tossed in by crazed baseball fans who felt the image of restaurant founder Harland Sanders resembled a key team member.
"He was apparently found standing upright, which is fitting, because although he was a nice man he could also be very strict and demanding," said Sumeo Yokakawa, a spokeswoman at the chain's Tokyo headquarters.
She said the statue was taken from a nearby KFC restaurant and tossed in the river as part of a celebration by baseball fans in 1985, the year Osaka's baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, won the national championship.
Local fans thought the Colonel bore a resemblance to Randy Bass, a bearded power hitter and first baseman from the U.S. who played for the team at the time.
Fans often jump into the murky river to celebrate the team's successes, but there has been little to celebrate in recent years. Many fans feel the team has been plagued by the "curse of Colonel Sanders" since his effigy was submerged in 1985.
It has failed to win a national championship since, although it did win its division in 2003.
The upper half of the statue was found Tuesday in Osaka's Dotonburi River during construction work to build a new walkway, according to city official Hideo Yuko. His legs and right hand were found Wednesday morning.
The colonel will be kept in police custody for the time being, but Yokakawa said KFC is considering donating him to the home stadium of the Tigers in Osaka. The store where he originally stood has since closed.
The KFC chain currently operates about 1,160 restaurants in Japan, and has about 1,000 Colonel Sanders statues in the country.
© Wire reports
33 Comments
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Patricia Yarrow
Replace those lurid statues with a nice park bench seat so people can find a place to SIT DOWN and enjoy their chow. That would be a real service!
afterhous
LOL. They're still looking for his left hand and his glasses.
Nessie
You shall know the power of the Force, young Padawan.
some14some
"If the Devil finds a Man idle, he'll set him at work", recession once-in-a-century?
Sarge
Q. Why did the chicken cross the road?
A. To get away from Colonel Sanders.
Sarge
smith: "Oddly, the statue looks more life-like now than those statues do when new"
By golly, smith, you're right! The Colonel looks as if he's saying, "My chicken's so finger-lickin' good, I licked my fingers clean off!"
grafton
“The colonel will be kept in police custody for the time being,”
No doubt he will make an admission guilt after 24 hours. Not sure for what crime, but that is a mere detail.
wanderlust
So what do they have outside the 160 KFC stores that have no statue of Col. Sanders?
Noripinhead
Imagine if it had been found thousands of years from now by some archaeologists looking back on the ancient culture of 21st century Japan. They would have assigned as the statue of the Lawgiver of Life, the Colonel of Sanders, a figure revered throughout the nation, and none of these statues would be ever be found in the former continental United States of America.
Patricia Yarrow
fishes...figuratively speaking...depends on your river, I suppose. :-
Dennis Bauer
GW check the sushi in Osaka to be sure.
Randy Bass looks like Colonel Sanders??????
GW
ranger
do you really think there is any alive in those waters..........I dont!
Patricia Yarrow
People of Japan...please throw all those hideous KFC and Ronald Mcdonald clowns into your rivers. Let them be food...for fishes!
blvtzpk
Psst...the Col's going down again. I can feel it in my bones...wishbones that is!
gogogo
So who was arrested for it?
IchyaWarFare
I think they need to find his glasses too.
rollonarte
"Venice of the Orient" and all that.
jeancolmar
Venus de Sanders?
bushlover
Did they find any other Hanshin fans in there? There may be some families still waiting for them to be returned.
funkyfresh
and so it begins, Sanders will now be a tourist attraction, traveling around Japan for people to take pics of.
seesaw
craps!
meanmutha
and just stick a cig in his mouth, done.
meanmutha
a good symbol of Osaka.
mrsynik
Please throw it back in the river along with Ronald Mc Donald.
timorborder
Potential for a bit of fun here. Perhaps KFC and Hanshin can come to some agreement and keep this tradition going. Something like the goat at Wrigley Field.
Sarge
"the curse that has plagued the Hanshin Tigers"
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Altria
There have been televised expeditions into the Dotonbori river in search of the Colonel, complete with underwater cameras. But the river was full of so much crap they couldn't find him.
Maybe Kevin Mench is the second coming of Randy Bass and the Tigers are going to take the Series this year!!!
bobbafett
when have they competed for last place recently?
Beelzebub
If Hanshin fans really believed there was a "curse" that kept them from winning pennants, they could have donated to a fund to salvage the statue. They knew approximately where it was. How much could it have cost, half a million yen? But being cheapskate Osakans it never occurred to them to lift the curse. Which tells me that Hanshin fans are basically masochists who revel in the pathos of seeing their team contend for last place. My advice, then, is the throw the damn statue back, into a deeper part of the canal.
tanyurine
What I like is he's still smiling after all that time in a muddy river.
smithinjapan
Oddly, the statue looks more life-like now than ever those statues do when new.
As for the Tigers, their curse seems more to be bad management.
getsy
no finger licking good !!!!