Before Gritty became the Flyers’ orange chaos agent, Philadelphia had already tried its hand at a mascot once before. That first swing was Slapshot, a short-lived creation that arrived in 1976 and was gone by 1977, making him the only mascot in Flyers history for four decades.
Slapshot’s act was built around an on-ice routine set to the Rocky theme. He wore skates, worked through a power-skating performance, and finished by scoring a goal as the song hit its peak.
Dennis Boyle, the man in the suit, remembered it this way: "I had this power-skating routine," Dennis Boyle, the man inside the Slapshot suit, said, "And you're reaching the crescendo of the Rocky theme. I grabbed this puck at center ice, we did this two-or-three-minute routine, I put the puck in the net at the end of the Rocky song, and the place went bananas."
Boyle said he was paid $25 a night for the gig. Even now, there’s still some mystery around what Slapshot was supposed to be.
He was described in one post as "big, orange, and wore a hat," while one fan guessed he might have been a " bear-alligator" hybrid. Whatever the design was meant to be, it didn’t last.
Slapshot vanished after the 1976-77 season and was never seen again, with no clear explanation for why he disappeared.
He hasn’t been completely erased from Philadelphia lore, though. Slapshot is considered the father of the Phillie Phanatic and the husband of Phoebe Phanatic. For anyone determined enough, a Slapshot plushie can also be found on eBay for about $250.
The Flyers then went 40 years without a mascot before Gritty arrived from his secret hideout below the Xfinity Mobile Arena. The team’s marketing staff reportedly decided it was time for one after attending the 2016 NHL All-Star Game and seeing how mascots helped with marketing and community outreach around the league. That led to Gritty, who has since become one of the most distinctive mascots in sports.
Like Slapshot, Gritty is orange and hard to classify. Nobody can quite agree on what Gritty is supposed to be, either. The difference is that Gritty stuck - and with the most followers of any NHL mascot, he doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.
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