From mascot to meme to megastar: How Gritty took over the world

Barry Melrose uncovers the surprising story of how Flyers mascot Gritty came to be. (5:58)

Gritty is now a household name, a bona fide celebrity. But the feisty, furry Philadelphia Flyers mascot might not have invaded our lives quite as quickly without his memorable — and painful — debut on Sept. 24, 2018. Here’s an oral history of how the new king of Philly ascended to the mascot throne and went from getting roasted to being the toast of the sports world.

Gritty’s story doesn’t begin where you might think. In February 2018, Philadelphia celebrated the biggest moment in its sports history. After winning the Super Bowl, the Eagles were welcomed home by crowds of fans … and mascots.

Joe Heller, Flyers VP for brand strategy and creative content: I remember watching the Eagles’ bus come back with the team on it. The people leading the parade were the Phillie Phanatic, the Eagles’ Swoop and the 76ers’ Franklin. And I thought, “Of all the things that we can’t be part of … We have nobody to align with those three mascots.”

Shawn Tilger, former Flyers chief operating officer: We looked at each other and said, “OK, it’s time to give this thing a shot.”

Heller: The Sixers, Eagles and Phillies were so active with their mascots. We were missing 250 events a year where the Flyers were not represented.

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The Flyers knew they needed a mascot. Now they needed a design.

Heller: Dave Raymond, the original Phanatic, was right here in our backyard. So my first call was to Dave. He met with us and said, “You guys can do this.” But he warned us that people were not going to like this thing out of the gate. They were not going to like that a team that has been around for 52 years was suddenly shoving a mascot down their throats. This is a serious hockey town, with a team that’s serious about winning.

The Flyers eventually landed on a design from Brian Allen of FlyLand Designs, but not before they agonized over every detail.

Allen: The only guidance the Flyers gave us was that they were pretty sure they wanted the mascot to be a monster — somebody you’d want to high-five but not hug.

Tilger: There were a lot of options for us to pick from. Some were really safe, like an animal — something you could easily identify. We wanted something that, when you looked at it, you were like, “What is this thing?” The Phanatic is probably the greatest mascot of all time. But you can’t tell what he is.

Heller: We looked at maybe 125 different designs. We had squirrels on the table and bats and deer. One of the ones with the most potential was this character called “Monster D.” He had angel wings, a big belly. So we’re like, “There’s enough here we can play with.” We took the wings off. His mouth changed 13 different times.

Tilger: We argued about whether he should have eyebrows or no eyebrows, beard or no beard, googly eyes or no googly eyes, belly button or no belly button.

Heller: At one time we were gonna have smoke come out of his ears. We finally were like, “This is the guy.”

And who better to name that guy than former Flyers forward and Senior Advisor Paul Holmgren?

Holmgren: We were just kinda shooting the breeze, kickin’ ideas, spitballin’. But I said, “We should just call him Gritty.” It’s what the Flyers are known for — being a gritty team. That’s kind of how I view this city. It’s a fast-paced, hardworking, blue-collar community.

Tilger: And then [Holmgren] made a joke saying that Gritty’s hands should be made of sandpaper.

Next, Gritty went from paper to plush. But the Flyers still had their doubts.

Heller: His hair wasn’t great. His beard was kind of bizarre. And you just don’t know about him. That was our biggest fear, that this mascot wouldn’t be adopted.
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