Season 1, Episode 9 - "We've Got Spirit"
24 January, 2000
Sam becomes the McKinley basketball team's new mascot in the hopes of becoming closer to Cindy Sanders. Instead of winning her heart, however, he increasingly becomes frustrated with her apparent desire to be nothing more than friends as well as her obsessive crush over the basketball team's star athlete Todd Schellinger. He eventually becomes so fed up that he allows Neal be the mascot during a basketball game, though Neal is much more interested in getting laughs than following orders from Vicki, the bossy head cheerleader. Lindsay tries to break up with Nick after many false attempts. The freaks, meanwhile, have a sudden interest in sports and school spirit after they get beaten up by a gang of McKinley's rivals at Lincoln.
