Clutch the Rocket Bear is the

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

for the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its ho ...

. The informal nickname "

Clutch City Clutch City is a nickname given to the city of Houston, Texas after the city's National Basketball Association (NBA) club, the Houston Rockets. Background "Choke City" was a ''Houston Chronicle'' front-page headline in 1994, given to the city of H ...

" was given to

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

after the Rockets won their first

championship in the 1993–94 season. The moniker was adopted in response to a front-page headline in the ''Houston Chronicle'' declaring Houston to be "Choke City" after blowing a 20-point lead earlier in that postseason. Character designer Tom Sapp of Real Characters, Inc. created the bear mascot, appropriately named "Clutch," which was introduced on March 14, 1995.ROCKETS: Clutch Speaks Home
/ref> Clutch was named the 5th-most recognizable mascot in sports by ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' in February 2005, and was inducted into the

Mascot Hall of Fame The Mascot Hall of Fame, formally "The Mascot Hall of Fame Interactive Children's Museum", is a hall of fame for North American sports mascots. It was founded by David Raymond, who was the original Phillie Phanatic from 1978 to 1993. It was foun ...

in 2006. He also became the 2005 NBA Mascot of the Year. He also won the 2013 NBA Mascot of the Year. He received even more attention in an Internet meme that involved a man being shot down during a halftime marriage proposal at a Rockets game in 2008. After the woman said "no" and stormed off the court, Clutch consoled him and walked him off, grabbing somebody's

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

on the way out and giving it to the man. Some have questioned whether the incident was actually staged. Clutch continues to entertain crowds in the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. In 2019, Clutch was featured in a television commercial for

State Farm Insurance State Farm Insurance is a large group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. Overview State Farm is the largest property and casualty insurance provider, and the lar ...

alongside current Rockets players

James Harden James Edward Harden Jr. (born August 26, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Harden is regarded as one of the greatest scorers and shooting guards in NBA ...

and

Chris Paul Christopher Emmanuel Paul (born May 6, 1985), nicknamed "CP3" and “The Point God”, is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Paul is widely regarded as one o ...

and actor

Oscar Nuñez Oscar Nunez (born November 18, 1958), sometimes credited as Oscar Nuñez, is a Cuban-American actor. He is best known for his role as the Dunder Mifflin accountant Oscar Martinez on NBC's ''The Office''. He was a member of The Groundlings and l ...

References

Clutch (mascot) Clutch (mascot) Bear mascots Mascots introduced in 1995 {{Texas-sport-stub