My Former Intern Came Up With the Philadelphia Phantoms’ Mascot Name
Last night, an unlikely team clinched their place in the Stanley Cup Final.
The 8th-seeded Florida Panthers completed a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes last night in dramatic fashion as Matthew Tkachuck (Yes, all my hockey lovers, that is, in fact, the son of Keith Tkachuk) scored a goal to give the Panthers the lead with just 4.9 seconds left in the game.
With that last-second goal, the Panthers clinched their first Stanley Cup appearance in 27 years.
The last time they made it that far was 1996!
Funnily enough, I have another first-time hockey-related story that is also a throwback to the year 1996!
Back then, I was still with WMGK’s sister station, WMMR, doing the midday show because Pierre Robert was doing the mornings for the station.
I was doing an appearance for the station at D&Q Ski + Snowboard in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
It was sort of just like any other appearance we did where we brought the MMR van, a speaker or two to play the station live, and just had an overall good time for all our listeners out there.
However, one thing was different at this appearance: we had a special guest with us!
I brought along Phlex, the mascot for the Philadelphia Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers!
At the time, the Phantoms still played all of their games at the Spectrum before eventually moving a little more north to Lehigh Valley.
Manning the Phlex suit that day was none other than my intern at the time, Chuck Damico!
Chuck was actually the first person to ever wear the Phlex suit!
Not only that, he actually came up with the name Phlex as well – even though you won’t find his credit in any of the history books or any extra money in his bank account for coming up with such a creative name, we that are in the know, know the truth behind the name’s origin!
Chuck said he came up with the name because when he put on the costume, it made his arms flex.
Sometimes the best ideas just organically happen!
With a sharp mind like that, no wonder my one-time intern eventually worked his way up to becoming the Program Director at 97.5 The Fanatic and the Assistant Program Director at WMMR!
And that is why I always say, be nice to your interns because you never know what could happen!
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