|
The sight of an octopus on ice at your local fish market is perfectly normal, but an octopus on the ice during a hockey game is a different story. And in Detroit of all places? What are these fans thinking? After swimming around the Web a bit, we quickly found the reason for the tossing of these eight-armed creatures. A search on "octopus red wings" directed us to The History of the Octopus on the "Original" Unofficial Red Wing Home Page. According to the site, the first octopus was tossed on the ice on April 15, 1952, during the Red Wings' Stanley Cup playoff run.
Devoted fans of the team, Pete and Jerry Cusimano, two fishmonger brothers, tossed a mollusk onto the ice during the game at Olympia Stadium that fateful night. Back then, the NHL consisted of six teams, and a team only needed eight wins (two best-of-seven playoff series) to win the Stanley Cup. Each tentacle of the octopus symbolized one playoff victory. The Wings won the Cup that year, and since then, octopi have made periodic appearances on the Detroit ice. The Red Wings are currently battling the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Finals. These days, it takes twice as many wins to take home the Cup, but that doesn't stop the fans from throwing
octopi on the ice in Hockeytown, USA. Al the Octopus has even become the unofficial mascot of the team -- you can find him hanging in the rafters of Joe Louis Arena.
|
