As the famous quote about Shoeless Joe Jackson goes, “Say It Ain’t So, Joe!” I had to do a double and then triple take when I read the news.
One of my favorite mascots of all time–Sky Guy, the longtime Chicago Sky WNBA team’s iconic figure, who brilliantly entertained fans for almost 20 years–is about to be no more.
A sad moment in time…at least for this longtime fan of the team and their mascot.
Skye the Lioness has made her first appearance, and will now be the official new mascot of our favorite WNBA team here in Chicago.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea and the look of the new face of the franchise. Skye The Lioness looks great, and patterned after the famous lions at the Art Institute the idea behind her is brilliant.
The new mascot represents female power, grace, courage to overcome and more. All very cool and all apropos to what should symbolize a women’s professional team.
Photo by Jon Cohn
But losing Sky Guy? Oh, man that hurts. He has been with the team from its inception, and has always entertained with a combination of showmanship, athletic ability, and fan friendliness that all the top mascots have.
In fact, I have been to games or watched events where multiple mascots are in attendance. They may even have a mascot basketball game at halftime, and amongst them all, Sky Guy always managed to steal, if not all, a good part of the spotlight. He was that good.
He had that “somethin’ somethin’” that you can’t teach, but comes natural to the great ones. In fact, I still have my Sky Guy miniature that they passed out at games over a decade ago–I hold that little guy near and dear to my heart.
But, as they say…time waits for no one, and apparently it will soon be time for Sky Guy to exit stage left.
He will continue on through the end of this season and then the proud space-like, musclebound outfit he wore for so many years will be laid to rest (tears just thinking about this).
We welcome Skye The Lioness. She should be a great representative of our proud team, and the sentiment above is by no means a knock on our newest Chicago mascot. We wish the new Skye all the best!
But Sky Guy…we love youand you will be missed.
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