As promised, here are the mascots from Flint's long hockey history. As far as I know, the original Flint Generals and the Flint Spirits did not have mascots. There was a mascot called "Wolferee", I'm not sure if he was a secondary mascot in Flint or Port Huron. I remember him, but I don't have any pictures of him.
Anyway, the first three pictures are from my hockey card collection. The Warriors and Firebirds pictures are from Google searches. Again, if you know what happened to some of those suits, let me know.
The Flint Bulldogs were the original member of the Colonial Hockey League, and Boris the Bulldog is the first mascot for a Flint hockey team. He didn't run around nude, he did have a home Bulldogs jersey on and (I think) black hockey gloves. Boris would occasionally do skits on the ice. One memorable one was during intermission of a Bulldogs-Brantford Smoke game. Boris chased around the Smoke's "mascot", which was a giant cigarette, eventually dumping a pail of water on it to "douse" the Smoke. I kinda liked Boris, he was entertaining, even when the team he represented wasn't. Boris left when the Bulldogs moved to Utica, New York, during the 1993 offseason. He served Utica well, then was sent to the pound when that team went out of business. Whereabouts unknown.
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The Flint Generals didn't have a mascot until the 1995-96 season, when they debuted General Rally. The mascot was named after the fast food restaurant chain Rally's. The suit was interesting, and kind of impractical. Mascot suits tend to be heavy and heat traps (look at the Boris suit!), so the idea was to make an inflatable suit with a fan inside to keep it blown up. The operator could move the suits hands, walk around, bang up against the glass, and I think he could even skate. Problem is, the General Rally suit was about eight feet tall, and had all the grace of the Frankenstein monster. He could easily shuffle around on ice level just fine, but moving around the seating area and concourse was another matter. He was simply too tall, even when the suit operator let some air out and shrunk Rally's legs down. This suit stuck around for a few years until the Generals went with a regular mascot suit. It would pop up once in awhile after that. He was okay, a different type of mascot, but like I said, pretty much moving around like Frankenstein. I imagine that the suit wore out after several years. Whereabouts unknown.
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The Generals' second, and final, mascot came around in 2002. This is more of a typical mascot suit, but it worked much better around the arena. He could skate around prior to the game, interact with the fans, and not move around like the Frankenstein monster. Plus, he could actually fit in the concourse. He was okay, I imagine much easier to move around in. Pretty intimidating face on him, though. Again, named after the Rally's fast food chain, this one was given the first name "Joe" to differentiate from the original mascot. This one stuck around for the rest of the Generals' existence. General Joe Rally was given an honorable discharge and retired from service when the Generals were forced out of Perani Arena by the Michigan Warriors and Firland Management after the 2010 season. I don't remember any crazy antics by Joe Rally, but I do remember seeing him several times. I think I saw this suit on eBay a few years ago. Not sure though. Whereabouts unknown.
4. Michigan Warriors Mascot (name unknown, years unknown) Picture from mlive.com
For the life of me, I can't remember what this mascot's name was (for all I know, he was called "Murray"). The Warriors were around for five seasons, and I don't think this mascot lasted all five years, maybe only two years. I was not a Michigan Warriors fan, and only went to two of their games, and those were in 2014 and 2015, the last two years of that team's run. I honestly don't remember seeing a mascot walking around, and I would definitely remember this freak. Just look at that thing. I get the logo is a skull and crossbones, but this is nuts! Talk about a terrifying mascot. I hope the kid in this picture wasn't scarred.
Brendan Savage of the Flint Journal wrote an article asking for suggestions for this new mascot's nickname. I didn't have a suggestion, but I wrote, "Not to be morbid, but this new mascot looks like the decomposed remains of General Rally." Again, no idea what it's name was or even how long it was around. The Warrior's mascot (let's just call him Murray) went back to his original job of starring in children's nightmares after the Warriors were booted out of Perani Arena with the arrival of the OHL's Flint Firebirds in the summer of 2015. Whereabouts (thankfully) unknown.
The OHL arrived in Flint in 2015 when the Plymouth Whalers relocated to Perani Arena. The team's mascot is Hot Wing, pretty much a giant orange Muppet-like bird with blue hair, big sneakers (r skates) and a Firebirds jersey. Hot Wing is okay, another child-friendly mascot who interacts with the fans and taunts the opponents. Nothing too crazy or obnoxious. At least he's not a 8-foot tall balloon or a demonic skeleton with death hands. He frequently pops up at local festivals and has been seen with Lou E. Loon (Great Lakes Loons mascot) and Sammy Spirit and Burt.
Port Huron may take awhile. I have trading cards from the Icehawks and Flags that have their mascots, and I have pictures of Mitts and (I think) the Fighting Falcons mascot. Bridges is on the cover of one of my Border Cats programs, but I'm not sure about Clawed.
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