In the book Out of the Blue, Val Hale describes how they transformed Cosmo in 1997. In addition to a new-and-improved costume, they changed from having a single student be the mascot to having multiple people wear the costume. They recruited a former gymnast to be the "athletic" Cosmo and a dancer to do the dancing. They also quit changing the student who was Cosmo every year. In fact, the former gymnast was Cosmo for several years after he graduated from BYU. It's continued that way ever since.