Dec 30, 2007

Memphis Grizzlies mascot takes medical leave


GameOps.com blogs about Grizz, the furry mascot of the Memphis Grizzlies. Eric McMahon, who performs as the team mascot, has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Instead of replacing Eric with another performer, the team is cancelling any appearances by Grizz while Eric is in hospital. But that's only one of several initiatives the Grizzlies have implemented:
With Eric’s enthusiastic assistance, the Grizzlies have created the Friends of Grizz program. This program will invite patients of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and their families, on behalf of Grizz, to each home game beginning Saturday as a show of solidarity for their battle and his. Grizzlies players will wear a ‘00’ patch on their warm-ups representing Grizz’s jersey number to show their support for Eric and his recovery. The Grizzlies Den Team Store at FedExForum will begin selling Friends of Grizz wristbands at the Tuesday, January 15 game vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers. Proceeds from sales of the wristbands will go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.


Read more from GameOps.com...

Dec 28, 2007

Woman arrested for flashing the jumbotron



A woman flashes the fancam at a Memphis Grizzlies game, and gets arrested for indecent exposure.

(via Awful Announcing)

Hockey intermission entertainment in the 1960's

We're always looking for tidbits of info on the history of game entertainment, especially in hockey.

This weekend is the 40th anniversary of the first Ottawa 67's hockey game at the Ottawa Civic Centre. There was a great article earlier this week in the Ottawa Citizen that recapped the festivities and mayhem surrounding opening night.

Some highlights:

On the lighter side, a quintet of jazz musicians greeted fans in the concourse, Bobby Gimby and The Young Canadians strolled around the ice encouraging all 9,000 to join in on a rousing rendition of CA-NA-DA between periods, and people complained the scoreboard over centre ice obstructed their view because rink attendants experimented with keeping it low enough that southside spectators would see it from underneath the low roof.

It was an experiment doomed to failure and soon rectified.

...

By July 1, the team had its name through a contest by fans after the Gorman family refused to allow the use of the name "Senators." "Grenadiers" was a finalist among 2,000 entries, but it was thought players would not enjoy being called "diers" for short.

The 67's opened their first training camp Sept. 14 in Hull, clad in old Ottawa Montagnard jerseys. Some 80 hopefuls took the ice with Doyle among 10 goalies, Shawville's Bill and Terry Murray on defence, and Michel St. Jacques, Montrealer Pierre Jarry and Bill Clement, of Thurso, among the best of the forwards at "four-a-day" workouts.

Eight days in, they played their first exhibition in Hull versus Peterborough. Most notable was not the fact that only 1,666 showed up. More newsworthy was that the 67's "new" barber-pole sweaters didn't arrive until the end of the first period.

T-shirt gatling gun

Check this out - the t-shirt gatling gun - the next generation in arena t-shirt cannons.




More info from FX In Motion.

Dec 9, 2007

Video scoreboard catches fire in Seattle

The Seattle Supersonics video scoreboard caught on fire the other night. It actually wasn't the scoreboard itself, but a lighting fixture inside the scoreboard that caught fire. The game was delayed as the scoreboard was lowered and firefighters doused the flames. Here's the video:



More video of the fire here.