Tuesday afternoon at the Franklin Institute, the third mascot in team history, fittingly named "Franklin", was unveiled to onlooking Sixers fans.
Christian Cosby, in-arena host of the Sixers, led the event's festivities. Even the Phillie Phanatic was in attendance to welcome the newest mascot to the city.
Best in show. https://t.co/H0pvRvV6hI
— Franklin (@SixersFranklin) February 10, 2015
Zach Lowe of Grantland.com first reported of the new mascot's identity yesterday, describing him as a 'fluffy blue dog'. The Sixers' chief marketing officer, Tim McDermott, revealed to Lowe that Franklin will 'dribble, and dunk, and do all the crazy stunts fans expect of mascots now'.
Making the right decision of the new mascot was of the utmost importance to ownership, and their effort was surely extensive. Lowe describes the process behind the arrival at their final design of the blue pup:
The team revised designs and narrowed the field after each round of meetings with local kids. Ben Franklin was out, but dogs were in. The kids liked fluffy things and blue things, and the Sixers zeroed in on the Franklin character. It was among two finalists; McDermott won’t disclose the other, but he says he had guessed the kids would have chosen it over Franklin the dog. They didn’t, and so the Sixers’ on-court representative will be a big, furry, blue dog called Franklin. Ben Franklin himself might not be of much interest to young children, but the Sixers are at least naming the mascot for him.
Once the Grantland report leaked, Franklin "tweeted" to fans on his newly created Twitter account, @SixersFranklin:
Well, I guess the (dog’s) out of the bag. Franklin Institute. Tomorrow. 1 p.m. See you there.
— Franklin (@SixersFranklin) February 9, 2015
The Philadelphia 76ers had been without a mascot since returning from the 161-day, 2011 NBA lockout. Hip Hop, an energetic rabbit that was introduced for the 1997-1998 season in conjunction with the team's new look under team president Pat Croce, was essentially "killed off" by new ownership.
In an interview conducted by Kate Fagan of the Philadelphia Inquirer, then CEO of the franchise, Adam Aron, revealed the reasoning behind the ownership's decision to abandon the do-rag-wearing critter.
"It was an easy decision. Before we bought the team – in one of my first meetings in August with (managing owner) Josh Harris – we were comparing notes about our reactions to everything Philadelphia 76ers. Both of us, independently, came to the same conclusion: Hip Hop wasn’t the right image for the team we wanted to create and the product we wanted to offer 76ers fans."
Aron led an 'interesting campaign', to say the least, in the search for Hip Hop's replacement. An online fan vote was created, nearly a month after the initial announcement of the mascot vacancy, with three possible selections from renderings created by working partner, Jim Henson Creature Shop: B. Franklin Dogg, Phil E. Moose, and Big Ben.
It turns out the Sixers went with the dog mascot concept after all.
At the event today, Franklin interacted with the children in attendance and danced with the Dream Team. Additionally, he dunked with the Flight Squad, just like how his predecessor, Hip Hop, used to do at games.
Franklin will make his Wells Fargo Center debut on Friday, February 20 against the Indiana Pacers. The first 5,000 children in attendance, courtesy of Gatorade, will receive a "name-and-paw" jersey, similar to the jersey Franklin wears.
Matt Rappa (@mattrappa) is a contributor to Sixerdelphia.com.
