Inside the high-flying, risk-taking life of Lucky the Leprechaun

He’s captivated Celtics fans for over a decade with his aerial theatrics. Jumping off a trampoline, contorting his body in a whirling motion — not too slow, definitely not too fast — finding just the right angle to float above the rim, extend his arms above his head and typically dunk a green basketball into the hoop.

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The crowd erupts, and “Lucky The Leprechaun” takes it all in after landing on the black JetBlue mats, the left having a giant “1” and the right displaying a “7,” indicating the Celtics’ championships.

All in a day’s work for the Celtics biggest cheer man, from entertaining thousands with his athletic ability, to having secret handshakes with security guards. The gimmick itself is timeless and will always entertain. The man behind the shtick, not so much.

As 6:15 p.m. hits and the Boston Celtics green team wraps up its pre-game meeting on the promenade level – floor nine of TD Garden. Their leader, Kristofer “Kit” Ackermann, better known as ‘Lucky’ by Celtics fans, limps out of the meeting. He’s been missing time due to a severely sprained left ankle, which he suffered on January 9, the same day the Celtics played the Indiana Pacers. Ackermann had slipped on a ball during the dunk team’s walkthrough for its performance. The injury led to the 30-year-old going back-and-forth with crutches.

Ackermann relays to The Athletic he’s hopeful of returning to the court sometime in March, and definitely before the playoffs.

Sitting in a black rolling chair while sporting a black t-shirt, blue jeans and a Gordon Hayward-like combover, the performer pondered how much pain his body had endured over the past decade. He seemed to count silently, then remarked that he’s broken over 20 bones throughout his body, from his hand to ribs and ankles. Despite all the damage, he’s abstained from surgery.

In spite of the decimation his body has gone through, he still gets a rush and a feeling of excitement at doing the job, which is full-time, because his interesting career path, “mascoting,” almost didn’t happen.

Hailing from Collierville, Tenn., Ackermann wasn’t supposed to be interested in cheerleading. During his senior year of high school, he held a D1 scholarship in swimming and a D2 offer for decathlon. Even though his athletic accomplishments were being recognized by institutions, the discovery of cheerleading is what changed his life. While in school, he loved flipping and the feeling of performing for people.

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His love for cheerleading grew, and an unexpected choice was made. Ackermann turned down his other offers to pursue collegiate cheerleading.

“It was a little bit of a struggle,” Ackermann said on his parent’s reaction. “They definitely questioned my decision. They’d seen me do a lot of different sports.”

In the mind of the then-18-year-old, his parents thought he was throwing away great opportunities in sports he’d established himself in in favor of something he had just picked up. What his parents didn’t initially realize was that their son had found a way to receive a full scholarship offer from the University of Memphis.

Ackermann’s parents weren’t the only ones surprised.

“They were not excited about me getting into cheerleading initially,” Ackermann says, laughing, “I think that growing up in the south there’s certain connotations that come with that, of course. There’s certain connotations that come with being a cheerleader in general as a guy. Definitely, when I was getting into those were even more prominent than they are today.

“So, that was a challenge. That took a lot of negotiating with my parents, and a lot of hard conversations and a lot of awkward moments in high school as well. I was in a not very tolerant area and a lot of people just made assumptions and a lot of people just use that as an excuse to give somebody a hard time. My senior year was a hard time because of that for sure, but I don’t regret any of that.”

Despite the backlash, he would continue cheerleading, although his college career was short-lived. During his freshman year, Ackermann blew out his shoulder and couldn’t perform anymore. With his cheerleading career over, he turned to mascoting, which was a way for him to retain his scholarship.

As it turns out, the injury was a blessing in disguise. He thrived as the mascot and particularly enjoyed suiting up as Pouncer the Tiger when Memphis had future NBA lottery picks Tyreke Evans and Derrick Rose, whom he shared a history class with.

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When Ackermann wasn’t mascoting for his school, he was working part-time for the Memphis Grizzlies’ dunk team, who were known as the “Kings of the Court,” in tribute to Elvis Presley. The dunk team itself wore attire similar to the music icon.

Life was great, life was fun. He’d found his stride doing something he loved, but like every college student, during their senior year, he had to figure out what the next phase of his life would be. Eric McMahon, who inhabited the mascot “Grizz” for the Grizzlies, was Ackermann’s guiding light.

“He saw potential in me,” Ackermann says. “He had started to kind of take me under his wing and was showing me a lot of the ropes about being a mascot. So, when he heard that the ‘Lucky’ position had opened up during the offseason, he gave me a call. He helped me get connected with the Celtics and get my resume in. I, along with, I think, 100 to 150 of us sent in highlight reels of our skills and resume up to that point as performers. It was pretty steep competition, I wasn’t aware of it at the time.”

The then-21-year-old made the final five, who were invited to essentially perform a halftime show individually for the Celtics staff at the now-defunct Basketball City next to TD Garden. Once his show was completed, he had to wait and hope to receive the life-changing phone call.

Back in class at the University of Memphis in early October, Ackermann was seated listening to a professor’s lecture. As the academician expounded, Ackermann’s cellphone rang. He picked it up to see a “617” area code on the screen. At that moment he ran out of the classroom, certain it had to be good news. It was Celtics president Rich Gotham and others in the organization calling the college student to inform him he’d been selected to become the next “Lucky.”

After the call ended, Ackermann immediately called his father, who grew up a Celtics fan and loved everything about the franchise. His dad screamed into the phone, overwhelmed that his son had the opportunity to achieve his dream for such a storied team.

“That was one of the coolest moments of my life,” Ackermann said on his dad’s reaction. “To tell him that I had just had a conversation with the Boston Celtics, and they were giving me an offer. To hear him just yelling with excitement and just the pride in his voice, that’s what every kid wants.”

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After accepting the job, Ackermann then returned to class and told the professor he wouldn’t be returning — not only to that class, but to the university as a whole. He then met with the dean and unenrolled during his first semester of senior year. Due to getting the call in early October, he had two weeks to get his things together via U-Haul and get to Boston for the 2009-’10 season.

The toughest part amidst all the celebrations was the conversation Ackermann had to have with his parents about his withdrawing from college with less than a year left.

“That conversation was a little hard,” Ackermann says. “It was also from the moment that we accepted that this was a possibility, it was with the understanding that once I got up here and got established, I would re-enroll in school. It took me a little while, but I’m actually back in school. I’m actually about to finish up with that degree. It took a little longer than I expected.”

Ackermann had been a Criminal Justice major, with aspirations of working for the FBI due to an interest in criminal forensics. Just as with his athletic choices, he found a new passion along the way, and will now be graduating in May from the University of Memphis with a degree in art. Despite not yet having the actual degree, he does use the graphic design, computer, filming and editing skills he learned when it comes to maintaining and building the “Lucky” character.

College graduations are typically great moments for people to celebrate the end of their undergraduate years and the beginning of their next phase, all in one day. For the man in the leprechaun costume, that next phase began long ago — and his attendance will depend on how far his longtime employer goes in the playoffs.

“I haven’t decided yet,” Ackermann says. “It’ll depend a little bit on the game schedule. I’m hoping we’ll be busy in the playoffs, I’ll be okay with taking it through the mail. It’s cool though, I’m more than happy to accept that if that’s the case. It’s definitely something I always wanted to make sure that I honored. It was something that I promised my parents that I would do.”

It’s been a long journey for Ackermann. As his success grows, he believes he’s played a part in being a part of the movement of cheerleading being recognized as a sport and not just an activity. Ackermann also feels the same way about freestyle dunking, as he was part of a Team USA of sorts on a team of eight dunkers during the summer of 2016. The team made the trek to Budapest, Hungary, to compete in competitive freestyle dunking at BuDUNKpest, the so-called World Cup of Dunking. Ackermann won gold for individual freestyle dunking, while the American team won silver.

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“Our sport has been around for a very long time, but it’s been a slow growth,” Ackermann said. “We’ve always been the halftime act. Always the entertainment for another sport. To finally see our sport being validated, kinda like the cheerleading thing, it’s cool to just be a part of the evolution of something, and my name’s in there.”

Being a part of an evolution — in anything, really — means being around a long time. Ackermann, who turns 31 in the spring, has been doing high risk acts professionally for over a decade. With him only getting older and the injuries mounting, the question of ‘how long can I do this?’ arises. One thing is for sure, he has no intention of doing this job into his 50’s, like Jon Absey, the former longtime mascot of the Utah Jazz.

“I have no dreams of making it to my 50’s,” Ackermann said. “Lucky is too intense of a character to try and maintain that long. I wanna hold on to it as long as I can. The day is coming where my knees are gonna say ‘enough is enough,’ my ankles will have taken too much abuse at some point. I’m aware of that and I’m okay with that. I like to think I left it all out there. I’d like to think people will remember me fondly.”

He vocalized “there’s a lot of years left in the tank,” and doesn’t want to put a retirement date in stone yet, but suggested 35 could be the farthest he’ll go. As the days go on, he dreams of having his future children in the crowd watching him perform with his wife, Brittani, who’s a school teacher and cheer coach. He met her at East Celebrity Elite Cheer Gym in Tewksbury, Mass.

They met when both were at the gym during a late-night open gym session. In attendance were college cheerleaders and professional performers. As the night went on, there was an impromptu tumbling competition, which she won, catching the attention of her future husband. Being the gentleman he is, Ackermann introduced himself, and the two never looked back.

“She had the personality to back up the skills,” Ackermann says with a smile.

Cheerleading got him a free education and mascoting got him a career, two paths nobody saw coming for the Tennessee native. As time has progressed since Ackermann’s high school days, he’s noticed a change in the acceptance of male cheerleaders, and a greater understanding of who they are as people, rather than simply relying on stereotypes about their athleticism, sexuality, and desire to excel.

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“I do feel like we’re living in an age where society is simultaneously becoming more and more progressive, and simultaneously becoming more and more close-minded,” Ackermann said. “As a whole, when we look at society, we can have sort of short-sided views. When it comes to the person, when it comes to one-on-one interaction, I feel like people are becoming more accepting and more confident with just being themselves.

“The cheerleading community is one of those areas where you can see that kind of example. Something that has constantly been bombarded with stereotypes, inaccurate stereotypes. But has constantly battled against it with pride. There are just as many straight male cheerleaders as there are gay. They’re all amazing people, they all have amazing personalities and they’re all just looking for an opportunity to show their skills and show their worth as a person.”

Ackermann proved any doubters wrong and has lived a life of following his passions, rather than relying on what others told him to do. He knows he can’t do this forever, but for now, he’s enjoying this leap, not worrying about the landing.

(Top Photo: Omar Rawlings / Getty Images)