Last week, we had another “Question of the Week” from Mike Chamernik, and he’s back today with his latest QOTW.
Enjoy!
Question of the Week
by Mike Chamernik
The Mets were ice cold last year, sitting at 28-37 on the morning of June 12. Everything turned around that night, though. Grimace, the purple McDonald’s character, threw out the first pitch and the team caught fire, going on a run all the way to the NLCS.
Fans have become enamored by the team’s new good luck charm. People go to games wearing Grimace costumes and waving Grimace signs. The Mets painted a seat purple. Third baseman Mark Vientos has been wearing Grimace spikes.
It’s always fun when magic happens organically. The Rally Monkey and Rally Squirrel also come to mind.
Does your team have an unofficial mascot? What is the story behind it? Are there any obscure unofficial mascots, or ones with wacky origin stories?
In addition to Bernie Brewer and the Racing Sausages, the Brewers also had Hank the dog. He was a stray who turned up at their Spring Training facility back in 2014. The team rescued him and he spent the season in the clubhouse and on the field.
Thanks, Mike — great question again.
The whole Grimace thing was actually really fun and — while there are any number of reasons the season got turned around for my Mets last year, including Hailey Welch’s First Pitch (after which the Mets proceeded to go 13-5) — maybe it was the impetus for the beginning of their playoff run. Hopefully though, the Mets will have quietly retired “Grimace” from any sort of unofficial mascot duties. I love the idea of an organically grown, unofficial mascot though.
How about you guys? I’m sure you’ve all got some unofficial mascots for your club(s), over the years if not at present. Fire away!
There was a season a few years ago when a possum ran across the field at Alex Box Stadium at LSU and the Tigers came back and rally possum became a thing the rest of the season.
Arsenal have a dog named Win at their training ground: link
Dancing Barry comes to mind back in the Showtime Lakers era.
The Suns Gorilla started as an accident. He arrived to the arena in 1980 as a singing telegram, and a security guard suggested he do a few dances underneath the basket during a timeout and the fans loved it. He kept coming to games until he was officially invited to be part of the team.
Bulls also had a dancing superfan link
I didn’t know that about the Gorilla!
Not really answering the question, but the organic or spontaneous creation of mascots is fun thing in sports, which doesn’t lend itself so much to modern pro (or even college) sports in the US with their powerful branding. But, thinking about European naming conventions, when the team is just FC Whatever, the actual mascot can be less rigid. If some pigeon lands on the team bench and suddenly they have a big comeback, go on a winning streak and have a very successful season, you have a new mascot for however long you want to have it. There is a whimsical and fan engaged spirit to that which you’ll never really get when say the Detroit Tigers are always going to be tiger themed, a pigeon will never show up on their team crest one year.
Great point. American pro teams are so serious about branding and focus groups and IP.
Most MLS teams have unofficial mascots. Off the top of my head, RSL, Orlando, and Cincinnati have some form of Lion, Nashville have Coyotes, Miami has Herons, Minnesota has Loons, and NYCFC has Pigeons.
My defunct childhood ECHL team, the New Orleans Brass, had official mascots of a large purple and gold cat named Scratchmo and a jester named…I think…Jester. Unofficially, two (male) season ticket holders decided to dress like women and got on the Jumbotron, so they became the New Orleans Brass cheerleaders. (We’re talking 1997 through 2002, it was a different time.) Also, because we’re the Brass, the team would play a video of a toy monkey playing cymbals, with which song in the background? Yep, “Brass Monkey” by Beastie Boys.
Haha Brass Monkey
I don’t know if the Angels’ Rally Monkey counts, but that guy was everywhere for a few years.
Then there’s the Hogs in Washington, which started as a nickname for the O-line in the 1980s and became so popular that a lot of people wanted the team to re-brand as the Hogs. For many years there was a group of die-hard fans at every game who wore pig snouts and called themselves the Hogettes. I guess technically their current mascot is a hog, but I don’t know if anybody really pays attention to Major Tuddy.
Great one with the Hogs!
In the late 1970s, New Rochelle’s varsity hockey team (officially the Huguenots) adopted the nickname “Rebels” and sewed Confederate flags to their jerseys. Members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd had recently died in a plane crash, and the team had rallied around their shared love of southern rock. It was perhaps the first time I realized that the flag was a divisive symbol. Black students and the principal voiced their disapproval, but the team doubled down and waved the flag at a pep rally. I had inserted myself into the controversy by contributing a “New Rochelle Rebels” cartoon to the school paper, and got angry when it was censored by some creative cropping.
Only years later did we come to grips with the crassness and jingoism of our efforts. It was a different time and our familiarity with the Rebel Flag blinded us to the dark, cruel message it conveyed.
Yeah. I like the general idea of being a rebel, but when it involves Confederate-era imagery, you gotta shut it down
The team I most often attend in person, Forward Madison FC of USL League One, has had two official mascots, both dairy cows. The farmer who owns the cows typically brings a few other animals to home games to stock a small petting zoo area for kids at the game. Here’s a photo of current mascot cow Rose Cowbelle back when she was still a calf:
link
Otherwise, the mascot situation for the Washington Nationals has long been interesting. The team has an official mascot, Screech the eagle, but most fans regard the team’s racing mascots of the four presidents on Mount Rushmore as the de facto team mascots. Fans in the stands have always seemed more interested in getting a photo with Teddy or George or Abe than with Screech. So the racing presidents are sort of the team’s unofficial mascots.
So many teams have racing mascots
My local minor league team, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, has racing nuts: Johnny Cashew, John Walnut, the Almond Brothers and Peanut.
In 2019, Baby Shark became a thing for thr Washington Nationals after new acquistion Gerardo Parra used it as his at bat music when they turned the season around. There was some shark gear, but never a costumed mascot.
I remember that October during the Nats run “Baby Shark” was played *during church* – organ and the choir (my wife sings in it). The World Series run was so joyful.
Also, agreed, Screech is an afterthought.
I have a Baby Shark hat and a Racing Presidents t-shirt, but I never thought about getting any Screech merch. So I would agree that it’s an afterthought.
Whole stadium was doing Baby Shark. Similiar thing in 2022 when the Oscar Gonzalez of the Guardians had the SpongeBob music going
The history of the dog (or “dawg”) logo/mascot with the Browns is kind of interesting. It came from Hanford Dixon nicknaming the defense the “dawgs” in 1985; then a section of the stands became known as the “Dawg Pound.” Then unofficial dog logos started showing up. Finally the team embraced it officially and various Dawg images became part of branding. There’s even sometimes talk of putting one on the helmet.
Excellent example
Two things come to mind:
Giants (SF) fans used rubber chickens to taunt opposing teams that intentionally walked or pitched around Barry Bonds. They’d wave them and heckle and such to taunt the pitcher and coach, then they’d hang a chicken on the outfield wall for every walk.
My high school was also an orange and black team, so it was easy to do double duty with fan gear. A group of a dozen or so of us friends bought orange prison jumpsuits and other things like giant foam hats, foam fingers, face paint, shoes, shirts, etc and we’d attend any and every sport our school offered and we were friends with most everybody so we’d make big funny signs for the athletes and make up songs/chants. We became known as “the orange guys”, and did actually got a decent amount of coverage when we attended a giants game with the same shtick (that was the candlestick bleacher creature days).
I cannot let this article go past without mentioning the weird connection of Kate Smith and the Philadelphia Flyers.
I am sure most people know what I am talking about.
IYKYK
On two different football games against TCU, a fox and a possum showed up on the Texas Tech football field. I think we were behind and ended up beating TCU. The next time it was an opossum and we beat them again. Instant internet meme and the main merch company, Red Raider Outfitter, made t-shirts. So any time we are down and a wild animal shows up, it is a good omen! It has happened numerous times with a fox.
What is the difference between a possum and an opossum?
O, you know…
When the Knicks were Champions, Dancing Harry helped to stir up the MSG crowd and hex opponents. Also roamed courtside for the Bullets before that, and for the Nets and Pacers after. link
Emory University is the Eagles but they also have Dooley, a skeleton, who the mascot of the students and disrupts class.
Denver Broncos had the Barrel Man. Detroit Red Wings have Al the octopus. link
Yes, the octopus!
Talk about different times. A guy named Hub Meeds dressed up as a Viking for Super Bowl IV and convinced security he was the Vikings mascot. I believe he got on the sidelines that day and despite the Vikings losing the first of four Super Bowls they lost in eight years, the team hired him as the official mascot the next year. link