Utah Grizzlies celebrate Halloween in skeleton style
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The Batman theme jerseys we saw from Toledo the other day were cool. But not to be outdone, the ECHL's Utah Grizzlies went all out on Halloween night with these skeleton uniforms!
What makes this theme night stand out is that they went beyond just the jerseys. Even the pants and socks were made to look like bones.
Impressively, the club raised more than $17,000 for St. Jude Children's Hospital in the post-game auction of the special sweaters. That's just awesome.
Unfortunately, the spooky costumes did nothing to rattle the visiting Colorado Eagles, who won 6-2.
But wait, there's more!
The Grizzlies are also celebrating their 20th anniversary season with a special jersey. The crest reads 1995–2014 — though it probably should say 2015. But the franchise's history isn't quite so straightforward.
The team we know today as the Grizzlies actually began play in Utah after a dormant ECHL franchise was resurrected in 2005. That franchise was founded in 1981 as the Nashville South Stars in the old Central Hockey League.
Two years later, the team moved to the Atlantic Coast Hockey League and became the Virginia Lancers. During a decade which saw a couple more name changes and a couple league changes, the franchise ultimately became a founding member of the East Coast Hockey League in 1988.
In 1993, the moved to Alabama and became the Huntsville Blast for one season. After that, they spent seven in Florida as the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks.
In 2001, the team relocated yet again to Georgia and got one of the greatest nicknames in minor league hockey history — the Macon Whoopee. Not kidding. But that only lasted a year, followed by a year as the Lexington Men-o-War in Kentucky.
In 2003, the franchise folded again and stayed that way for two years before it was mercifully transferred out of the south and sent west to Utah.
So where does the 20th anniversary claim come from? Glad you asked. The original Utah Grizzlies franchise began play in 1995 in the International Hockey League. It was one of the teams that jumped to the American Hockey League when the IHL folded in 2001.
In 2005, the franchise suspended operations while searching for a new owner. That's when the ECHL came knocking. But that original Grizzlies AHL franchise was reborn in 2007 as the Lake Erie Monsters.
I don't know what anyone could possibly do with that information. But there you have it.
So... how about those skeleton jerseys?