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Secret identity of MSU's Original Sparty finally revealed after 30 years

SportsPulse: Now that March Madness is over we look ahead to the top 25 teams in the country heading into the 2019-20 college basketball season. USA TODAY Sports

MINNEAPOLIS – Long before there was Sparty the bulky mascot, there was Sparty the papier-mache head. A fiberglass noggin followed.

Then Michigan State University got legit.

In 1989, a full-body foam and rubber warrior with bulging muscles, ripped abs and cartoonish face was born — and an unknown engineering student became the first official Sparty. His name was never disclosed.

Thirty years later, we found him.