A beloved mascot tradition will return for a Georgia football team. But when?

STATESBORO ― You hear Freedom II before you see her, the shrill squawk echoing from the bald eagle enclosure near the heart of Georgia Southern’s campus.

For years, such a call has communicated one thing around here: It’s time for football. Eagle football.

From 2007 through 2024, a similar shriek, from another eagle, could pull the attention of 20,000 men, women and children from the hot dogs in their laps and the game programs in their hands to the skies above.

There soared a male bald eagle named Freedom, wide in wing, his white-feathered head turning in search of his handler and caretaker, Steve Hein.

The tradition, known as “first flight,” was missing last fall because of the unexpected death of Freedom in March 2025.

As Georgia Southern opens the 2026 season at 7 p.m. Saturday, fans are as curious about Freedom II’s maiden flight as they are about new quarterback Max Johnson’s command of the offense or fifth-year head coach Clay Helton’s job security.

Freedom flew over the field as part of Georgia Southern's pregame football festivities from 2007 through 2024. (Courtesy of Georgia Southern University)

Freedom’s sudden death shook the Georgia Southern community. For 18 years, he mesmerized fans young and old with his style and grace. He was the school’s most popular game day ambassador.

Perched on Hein’s gloved wrist, he’d work the stadium crowd like an A-list celebrity and, shortly before kickoff, dazzle all by swooping around the field to the rhythms of the “Rocky” theme — a song titled “Gonna Fly Now” — as played by the Southern Pride marching band.

Freedom’s likeness is found all over this small, South Georgia town. Statues made from plaster stand in front of banks. Wooden carvings decorate street corners. At one popular eatery, a giant, brightly painted Freedom made from scrap metal pieces guards the patio. A bronze sculpture of Freedom in flight was unveiled last year in the statue garden outside Paulson, right next to a tribute to Georgia Southern’s greatest icon, legendary coach Erk Russell, who died in 2006.

Many a Georgia Southern fan still tears up today when talking about Freedom. Yet a season without the tradition was harder still. Freedom II made her first appearance at a game last November, the introduction met by a thunderous roar from those in attendance.

Surely she’d fly this September, many surmised. Especially under the tutelage of Hein.

Man and beast bond through trust

Freedom II’s voice is the first one Hein hears every morning.

He’s an early riser with a habit of exercising before the sun rises — let alone his wife of more than four decades gets out of bed. Part of his routine is to walk the drive of his property with a dog on a lead and an eagle on his wrist.

The two animals are polar opposites in terms of training. Hein can break a dog in a day or two, sometimes just hours. But eagles aren’t pets. They are wildlife. Apex predators. A nonsocial species.

Steve Hein, who is executive director of the Georgia Southern's Center for Wildlife Education and a master falconer, trains Freedom II. (Sarah Peacock for the AJC)

Hein is the director of Georgia Southern’s Center for Wildlife Education, a facility built on the school’s affinity for its mascot. The center houses 17 species of raptors — hawks, owls, falcons — along with waterfowl, snakes, toads, turtles and other critters.

Freedom II, though, lives with Hein, moving with him between his 10-acre property on Statesboro’s outskirts and the wildlife center.

Hein cared for Freedom for 21 years, from when he was an eaglet with a deformed beak — which would have been a death sentence had he remained in the wild — to the day he died. Never did Hein get the sense Freedom loved him. A master falconer for 39 years, he understands that birds of prey don’t form the same attachment for their human companions that dogs and cats do.

“Trust? Yes. But the bond is not built on a loving relationship as experienced with a pet,” Hein said. “Training an eagle is all about building a bond with the wild.”

Hein worked three years with Freedom on that bond. He’s known Freedom II for a decade, yet that trust is still in its infancy.

Georgia Southern University football players run onto the field before their game against the University of Southern Mississippi. (Sarah Peacock for the AJC 2025)

Flight vision

Freedom II is starting Year 2 of her flight training. That’s because, unbeknownst to Hein, she’d suffered a bout of West Nile virus as an eaglet. She matured, but her vision didn’t develop as it should have.

Two years in, Hein made the “devastating” discovery — she’d likely never fly.

Then late one football Saturday in 2024, as Hein put Freedom in his enclosure and checked on the other raptors, he dropped a small morsel of meat in the gravel of Freedom II’s mew. She found it immediately. He threw others and watched her track them.

The optic nerve had mended, like a broken bone in a cast.

“We were back in business,” he said.

Little did anyone know that Freedom II would be elevated to a starring role so soon.

Not only is Steve Hein director of Georgia Southern’s Center for Wildlife Education, he also is an artist. He painted Freedom in 2006. (Sarah Peacock for the AJC)

Hein found Freedom dead on the afternoon of March 29, 2025. The bird had seemed his normal self that morning. But as a predator, an eagle’s ability to hide illness is key to its survival. Showing weakness turns predator into prey.

Hein was still grieving Freedom when he started to ramp up Freedom II’s training. First, he needed her to accept a hood over her head so he could keep her calm during transport to an unfamiliar environment. After that, he needed to teach her to feel comfortable around strangers.

All along the way, he would coax her to leap from his glove to the ground and back again while attached by a leash — each one a flight, albeit a short one.

By November of last year, she was ready for her public introduction at the football game. She attended commencements in the spring. Lately, Hein has taken her to campus gatherings and events.

“It doesn’t take much to get 18- to 23-year-olds excited,” Hein said. “It is particularly easy when allowing them to take a selfie with a bald eagle named Freedom.”

Preparing to take flight

On a recent weekday morning, Freedom II relaxed in her on-campus enclosure at the Center for Wildlife Education. A young couple, Ben and Chelsea Edwards, along with their 4-year-old triplets, Ellis, Evan and Ethan, had come to visit on a family field trip.

Two of Ben and Chelsea Edwards' triplets pet Freedom II during a recent visit to the wildlife center.(Sarah Peacock for the AJC)

Their timing was good. Hein was doing a photo shoot with Freedom II, and the Edwards family was invited to take part. The boys got to touch the feathers along Freedom II’s back and giggle as she flapped her wings above their heads. The Edwards live in Statesboro and are Georgia Southern alums.

“I came just to see Freedom II; I got a little hop in my step when I came around the corner and saw her,” said Ben Edwards, who is a firefighter and always volunteers to work on the public safety crew at Georgia Southern football games. “I can’t wait to see more of her at games this fall.”

He doesn’t ask Hein the question on the minds of every member of the Georgia Southern faithful: “When will she fly?”

Hein hears it enough, and he’s good at subtly evading it. He talks about training “benchmarks,” how pleased he is in Freedom II’s progress and how “slow and steady” is necessary for trust. But there’s no planned date. Not Saturday’s opener. Not homecoming on Nov. 7. Not the Nov. 28 season finale.