Kelly Frank laughs when she’s asked about the weirdest fan interaction she’s ever had while wearing a giant furry suit. ‘You can just Google it, “ThunderBug silly string”, and you’ll see why I’m no longer with the Tampa Bay Lightning.’
It was January 17, 2012, when the Lightning were hosting the Boston Bruins. Frank became known for her antics as ‘ThunderBug’ – the hockey team’s lightning bug mascot – which included spraying silly string on opposing fans.
The harmless prank didn’t go over well. The Bruins fan she sprayed got up out of his seat and shoved Frank to the ground while she wore the costume. The two exchanged words and the fan was led out of the arena. Days later, Frank was fired.
It’s not a surprising story among mascots: people who don heavy, sweaty suits of fur to greet fans as funny characters at sporting events around the nation.
But speaking to those who have been in these roles shows their jobs are not as happy as their characters. In addition to a lack of respect, fan incidents are common and working conditions vary from place to place, event to event.
Daily Mail Sport spoke to three veterans of the trade to find out exactly what got them into the suits and why they took them off after years of dedication.
Colorful, funny, fuzzy mascots are some of the most recognizable characters in US sports
But those behind the characters describe poor work conditions and a lack of respect
All three shared a deep, radiating passion for sports.
John Maniatis was a student at DePaul University when his roommate served as the mascot for the school – known as DIBS or ‘Demon In A Blue Suit’. After working as his handler for a little while, Maniatis was asked to cover for him.
‘I knew all of the mannerisms, knew the character that he was trying to portray,’ Maniatis told the Daily Mail.
‘And I just took that and ran with it and followed his lead on that and gave it a little bit of my own spin, but tried to keep it honest to the character.’
Frank grew up in Florida and was an avid fan of the Florida Panthers. She took that and worked as ‘Knightro’ – the mascot for her college, the University of Central Florida – before playing ‘Raymond’ for the Tampa Bay Rays and then, of course, ‘ThunderBug’.
Becky Clarke turned her love for hockey into a career as ‘Blades’, the mascot for the Boston Bruins.
‘I went to the 1996 NHL All-Star Game in Boston and they had all the mascots there and I was watching ThunderBug… it was something that caught my attention,’ Clarke said, adding that her background in dance and figure skating spoke to her passion for performance.
All three described a relatively easy initial audition or interview process. Turns out, not many people are lining up to put on a heavy, hot suit and have interactions with unruly fans.
John Maniatis once played the Demon in a Blue Suit (DIBS) for his school, DePaul
Becky Clarke played one of the early incarnations of the Boston Bruins’ mascot, Blades
But they each had an affinity for the characters they portrayed and the freedom they had to perform.
‘I liken it to some of that slapstick, Three Stooges, comedy style from back in the day,’ said Maniatis, who also worked as ‘Sparky’ – the mascot for MLS’ Chicago Fire.
‘It takes a little bit of the seriousness away from sporting events, takes the edge off, where people dig their heels in in their fandom. But it lets people have fun. It’s like the reminder of why people are watching sports anyway. It’s entertainment.’
For Frank, being a mascot is the representation of being the ultimate supporter for your team.
But there’s easy ways for passion to die out. Over time, like any job, the strains and hazards began to show themselves.
Except rather than carpal tunnel from endless typing or back problems from sitting in a chair, mascots endured torn ACLs and outright assault from fans.
It’s what inspired this story after the man who portrayed Rocky, the mascot for the Denver Nuggets, sued the team alleging wrongful termination when he said he was fired after getting a double hip replacement surgery – even though his doctors said he’d make a full recovery in just a few months.
The man behind ‘Rocky’ of the Denver Nuggets is suing the team for wrongful termination
All three described obtaining injuries as part of their jobs. For Maniatis and Frank, they both suffered theirs ‘in the line of fan duty’, so to speak.
Frank said while she was with the Rays, she fell off the outfield wall and broke her arm – leading to a plate and screws being surgically inserted.
Maniatis said he once tore his Meniscus after jumping out from behind a corner while trying to playfully frighten a fan.
But it was an injury during a ‘mascot birthday party’, where multiple other mascots were present, which led to Maniatis’ most notable ‘injury’.
He was portraying DIBS during an event celebrating the mascot for the Arena Football League’s Chicago Rush. At halftime, all the mascots played a game against each other.
Maniatis scored two touchdowns and was going for a third when the players started coming out of their locker rooms for the second half. As he tried dodging the athletes, he got ‘hit low by SkyGuy [former Chicago Sky mascot] and then all of a sudden, SouthPaw [Chicago White Sox mascot] comes and blindsides me and pops my head off.’
A chaotic scene ensued when Maniatis, headless, was dogpiled by all the other mascots who tried protecting his identity: ‘And in the dog pile, I tell them, “Guys, you have it on backwards.” And they realize that my head’s on backwards.
‘So they don’t get off the pile, but instead of taking it off and putting it back on, they spun it around my head. And in most cases, the mascot head is a hockey helmet. So it was quite a painful ordeal.’
Kelly Frank’s most famous incident involved this image, which was taken after she was shoved to the ground by an angry Boston Bruins fan she sprayed silly string on
Frank (in character above as Raymond in 2008) was also punched in the sternum by a fan
Outside injuries, all three detailed disturbing fan interactions ranging from intimidation to outright assault.
Frank detailed a story when she was with the Rays where a fan ‘just punched me straight in the sternum’.
‘You don’t even have one of those “I’m gonna gesture and not talk.” It was one of those, immediately, like, “what the f**k, what did this guy do?”
‘And then I was yelling – there was a cop that was nearby. I was just like, “Dude, this guy just punched me.” And the guy’s just laughing. The cop’s just like, “Oh, don’t do that again.” I’m just like, no, this is assault, brother. I wanted something to happen out of that. And that one was just laughed off. I was p*ssed.’
Clarke shared a similar story. In the 2003-’04 season, at the then-Fleet Center. She was dressed as Blades, greeting fans for a game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
She said a female Flyers fan entering the game ‘just came right up to the bear and just punched [me] right in the face. Nothing happened, there was no security around.’
The fan abuse didn’t end for her there. During an appearance in the 2007-’08 season, a fan grabbed her by the chest.
‘I had a gentleman, who was old enough to know better, grab my chest. Obviously, the first thing you think about is “mascot’s gonna be a dude”. Definitely not, and he could obviously tell it wasn’t a guy,’ Clarke claimed.
She said what sticks with her the most is the apology the man immediately gave: ‘He’s like, “I’m so sorry, I have kids, I would never do anything like that.”‘
Clarke said a female Philadelphia Flyers fan once punched her in the face while in costume
Clarke said a male fan also once grabbed her chest while she was at an event at a bar
While college basketball can often be a very tribal sport, Maniatis said his worst interactions came while portraying Sparky for the Chicago Fire.
‘Soccer fans are a little bit more edgy than most,’ he said. ‘We had instances where you just feel unsafe within opposing fans. You always got to rely on your handler to know and read situations.
‘There was a guy that wanted to take a picture with Sparky, and his sign ended up saying, “F*** the Fire”, or something like that… That’s more of what I’ve encountered.’
Unruly or outright abusive fans might be considered the worst workplace hazard, but what all three detailed was how often they worked and prepared for their jobs in less-than-ideal conditions.
Clarke said there were days during training camp with the Bruins where she didn’t have a locker room, meaning she couldn’t shower after being in a giant sweaty costume.
She said bigger events were also not the best. ‘Going to the NHL All-Star Games, I never had my own locker room. I was in a room with 23 other guys.’
Maniatis also had his own experiences changing in front of other mascots, describing them as, ‘Super hot and super uncomfortable. And there are female mascots as well, you have to be mindful of that.’
Maniatis said he felt intimidated while playing Sparky, the Chicago Fire mascot
Other specific events were tough to work at. Frank said taking part in parades proved to be exhausting and a logistical issue, and that her refusal to march in a parade almost got her fired.
‘I’m not putting my health at risk because I’m at an appearance that doesn’t make sense,’ she said. ‘And that pretty much is like every single parade that you do, because a parade never starts where it stops. There’s never really any place to take a break.
‘And on top of that, you have to be there hours before it starts. And then depending on where your position is, you could be sitting there in costume for an hour before the parade even starts.’
Clarke once detailed a time where her costume wasn’t properly aired out. She returned to find it still wet from another person’s sweat. The only solution was to spray Febreze in the costume. She has not used the product since due to that one event.
Those poor working conditions lead to a common theme from all three we spoke to: the lack of respect and the feeling you have to constantly prove why your job is important.
Maniatis feels like the mascot is a ‘living, breathing logo for a marketing department’. But too often, ‘It goes as like, “Oh, let’s just stick an intern in there”. I do see the value of what a mascot is and what a mascot can do for your brand, so why not build it up?’
Both Frank and Clarke mentioned how they needed to convince superiors of their worth.
Frank (above as Raymond) said she almost got fired because she refused to march in a parade
All three interviewees said they felt a need to prove their worth to their bosses and to distinguish themselves beyond the suit
‘You’re just seen as that fuzzy person, that idiot in a fuzzy suit,’ Frank said. ‘So you’re kind of always having to prove your value and prove your worth.’
Clarke said something similar. She put plenty of effort into going above and beyond, only to have her attempts at growing her character ignored. She claimed multiple requests to try skating on the ice in costume were denied, even just to practice.
Then, before the 2008-’09 season, Clarke was suddenly told she had to audition to keep her job. Moreover, she’d have to try out skating in costume, which requires different equipment than what she was used to. Despite having figure skated growing up, she struggled in the audition.
Clarke claimed she was also told the team wanted Blades to have ‘masculine tendencies, because mine were too feminine’ – which confused her after she had ‘done the job for eight years, to all of a sudden be told that you’re too feminine was a gut punch.’
These concerns and complaints are common in the community of mascots that Frank dubbed a ‘fur-ternity’. Both Frank and Maniatis detailed how they still feel a strong connection to their former comrades.
‘There’s only, like 100 of us between all the leagues. And especially if you were talking about baseball, there’s only, at max, 30 if you count some of the secondary characters,’ Frank said. ‘So it’s just such a small… they call it the “Fur-ternity” of people. It’s cool because usually you can go to any city and you know somebody in that city just because you know a mascot.’
‘They definitely are protective of it at first, and then once you’re in, you’re in, and you’re in it for life,’ Maniatis said. ‘So there’s people I still talk to. I think that everyone’s pretty cool with everyone for the most part.’
Clarke was let go from the Bruins just two years before she could have walked in the Stanley Cup victory parade in the 2011 season. Her replacement is seen in that parade, above
Clarke, unfortunately, didn’t feel the same way. She said that each year on June 17 – National Mascot Day – she will post something from her time with the Bruins, but will never get any interactions from former costumed colleagues.
‘To me, it feels like the job meant more to me than the people I was with,’ she said.
‘I bled Bruins colors. All I did was wear Bruins apparel everywhere I went.’
Two seasons after she was let go, Boston won the Stanley Cup. Her replacement as Blades the Bruin was in the parade, riding a duck boat through the streets of the city as throngs of joyful fans celebrated.
Meanwhile, Clarke fought through her emotions while working at a Reebok store in Foxborough selling Stanley Cup championship T-shirts.
She hasn’t watched a Bruins game since.
