On Saturday’s Kraken telecast vs. Dallas, beloved TV voice John Forslund alluded to his sometimes fraught history with mascots. Here’s the full story.
Don’t believe for a minute that the Seattle Kraken don’t employ enforcers, willing to knock misbehaving opponents on their ass.
One unlikely Kraken roughneck can be spotted high above the ice at Climate Pledge Arena. He’s right there in the home TV booth, wearing a suit, eyeglasses and a headset. No, not former players Eddie Olczyk or J.T. Brown. The take-no-prisoners individual we speak of is play-by-play announcer John Forslund.
John Forslund? The “That’s Kraken Hockey, Baby” guy? The “Hey, Hey, Whaddaya Say” guy? The affable broadcaster who’s as good doing what he does as anybody who does what he does?
Yes. We know this because of a story John once told on the KISW-FM “BJ & MIGs Mornings” show. For context, though, we first have to introduce this story’s antagonist, “Tricolo.”
Back in the 1980s, the AHL farm team of the Montreal Canadiens was located in Sherbrooke, Quebec. Because attendance wasn’t what Sherbrooke management hoped it would be, the team introduced a new mascot, Tricolo, in 1987.
DJLR’s sister site in Montreal, Habs Eyes On The Prize, described Tricolo as a “blue-furred, rosy-cheeked, puppy-dog-eyed amorphous mascot sporting the classic Canadiens jersey that the AHL team wore at the time.” Tricolo may have made eyes like a puppy, but he acted like a cross between a pit bull and a Karen.
Tricolo antagonized opponents sent to the penalty box, sometimes waving a rubber chicken on a stick. He once rushed an opponent’s bench while wielding a shovel. He blasted an ear-splitting air horn. When the league objected, “Tricolo showed up at centre ice with arms and legs chained and wearing an orange jumpsuit.”
The (Fredericton) Gleaner advertisement
After a player used his stick to swat at Tricolo, AHL VP Gordie Anziano said, “We didn’t know whether to fine him, suspend him, or make him player of the week.” (Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin)
Other clubs so disliked his antics, three teams took the extraordinary step of filing official complaints. The most egregious offense involved Tricolo openly mocking an opponent of Japanese descent with racist stereotypes. Almost as bad, one of Tricolo’s routines was pretending to fire a machine gun at a referee.
You get the idea. The line between good-natured ribbing and offensive behavior that civilized mascots know not to cross, Tricolo either didn’t see or ignored.
Inside the costume was a man named Claude Bernier. Claude/Tricolo got their comeuppance from none other than John Forslund.
“It was in a playoff game in Sherbrook, Quebec,” recalled Forslund. “I was working for the Springfield Indians at the time. This ‘thing’ came up, it looked like the old Expos mascot (Youppi, now the adopted mascot of the Canadiens).
“It was hanging out on the desk of the little booth I had. I couldn’t see. I asked him to move; he looked back at me and wouldn’t move. So I leveled him, I took him out. He went two rows down.” Like the professional he is, John didn’t miss a beat during the beatdown. “I still maintained the call. I never stopped. A (security guard) is tapping me on the shoulder and I just kept going.”
Now, decades later, the legend lives anew. We’re sure NHL mascots would never act so obnoxiously. But just to be on the safe side, before any of them make the mistake of antagonizing a certain broadcaster, someone please read them this column. Because as Jim Croce so wisely sung:
You don’t tug on Superman’s cape
You don’t spit into the wind
You don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don’t get between John Forslund and the game he’s calling.