Tribute Profile

Jacob 'Woof' Harley

Age: 76

District: 8

First Hunger Games: 16th, aged 17

Mentored By: Harvey Collings (75th Games)

Kills in the Arena: 2

Mentoring Record: 44 Games/ 1 Victor - Harvey Collings (56th Games)

Training Score: 2

Preferred Weapons: Knife

Stylist: Melody James

There are a few victors who nobody can really remember exactly what Hunger Games they won, or exactly how they did it. For most people in the Capitol, these few victors have been around since, well, forever.

Take Woof, for example, who has showed up every summer in the Capitol for the Games for longer than most people care to remember, for many of those in the hope that he might just be able to take another victor home with him for the first time.

Almost six decades ago, when a quiet seventeen-year-old boy called Jacob Harley was reaped for the 16th Annual Hunger Games, nobody expected much from him. His face forgotten almost as soon as the cameras had moved on to District 9. Nobody backed him before the Games, for others looked stronger and talked a better game - (he barely spoke a word in his interview back then - don't expect too much from him tonight!) But there was a resourceful survivor within his quiet exterior, and somehow Jacob defied the odds to be crowned a victor in unlikely circumstances.

However, victory in the Hunger Games liberated the man, whose wild antics in the Capitol were the talk of the town for years, up until around the time of the First Quarter Quell. What was rumoured to have started out as an inside joke among some of the older victors, the nickname Woof sprung up during those first years after Jacob's victory, and somehow it has managed to stick. For a while, it became a thing of interest, to try and prise from him the details of where the name came from, at least until public attention was dragged onto other matters.

After living the high life in the Capitol in his twenties, Woof grew up and settled down as he entered middle age, marrying at thirty-two and retiring to District 8, although despite having lived through over forty years of marriage, he has had no children to extend his legacy. Today, Woof's bloodline only exists in himself and one living cousin, five years older than Woof himself.

Despite grabbing all the headlines in his early years, Woof's life seems destined to be one that is to be forgotten. Of course, with so many celebrities having been brought to life through the Games, it's natural that some stars would fade away over time. On only a few occasions has Woof grabbed the spotlight in his later years, most notably when he finally managed to bring home Harvey Collings in the 56th Hunger Games to end District 8's barren spell in the arena - forty years without a victor.

Since then, Woof has become more distant than ever, slipping under the radar more than our best journalists would care to admit to. But here we are at the Third Quarter Quell, and suddenly Woof has been flung straight back into the spotlight once more. Like many of his competitors (and indeed his district partner Cecelia), Woof won his Games not by being the most ruthless killer, but by being the most hardy survivor. Maybe the odds will be against him, but if there is ever a moment for Woof to show us why he shouldn't fade away and be forgotten, then this is the time for Jacob Harley to prove himself.