By MADDY VITALE
Gritty is not exactly the word that comes to mind when describing the family-friendly resort town known as Ocean City.
But when Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty rolled into town Tuesday evening on his bicycle — followed by a Flyers bus, a DJ and emergency vehicles courtesy of Ocean City — hockey fans lined the downtown streets and the Boardwalk to cheer him on.
The day belonged to the orange, googly eyed, furry and friendly beast.
“We took our son to his first Flyers game at 9 months old,” Pat Morrison, of Glenside, Pa., said of his 2-year-old son, Shawn.
The father and son watched for Gritty and his entourage to appear as they waited at Sixth Street and Asbury Avenue.
“Shawn has a life-size Gritty poster in his room that would scare some kids, but he loves it,” Morrison said with a laugh.
“Gritty is coming!” Shawn exclaimed and clapped his hands.
The Flyers Community Caravan began at Sixth Street and traveled to 14th Street along the Asbury Avenue corridor in the downtown business district. Then it headed to 14th Street on the Boardwalk and made its way down the Boardwalk back to Sixth Street.
Meghan McMahon, of Marmora, brought her daughter, Mairead, 5, and 2-year-old son, Diarmuid, to watch the spectacle.
“We have always been huge Flyers fans,” McMahon said.
Mairead proudly displayed her Gritty toy that read: “Gritty is the new pretty.”
The Flyers caravan is part of a summer-long event series dubbed the team’s “Road to October.”
While Gritty isn’t so “pretty,” he certainly had a way with the crowd of spectators who shouted his named and waved to him.
He speedily circled around the fans and even posed for some photos, without missing a beat and certainly not slowing down his caravan.
Some of the vehicles held goodies that were tossed at fans. There were hats, plastic cups, sunglasses and even some very orange cheese curls that elicited laughter from people who scooped up the baggies.
Katherine and Allen Minch, of Egg Harbor Township, made the event a family affair. They are all diehard Flyers fans, they said. They brought along their sons, Jack, 11, Henry, 7, and 8-year-old Cooper.
“I’ve been watching the Flyers since I was a kid,” Allen Minch said. “They need to win a (Stanley) cup before I die. The last time they won, I wasn’t around yet.”
After the excitement in the downtown, Gritty took the caravan party to the Boardwalk, where fans were decked out in Flyers gear.
Sharon and Jeff Smith, of Florida, who have a vacation home in Somers Point, wore their orange T-shirts supporting the Flyers. The T-shirts said: “Stay Gritty Philadelphia.”
They awaited Gritty while at 10th Street and the Boardwalk.
“I think I see them coming,” Sharon Smith said with excitement. “Gritty moved so fast downtown, I couldn’t get any pictures of him. I will this time.”
Within minutes, Gritty rolled up, circled around fans and high-fived them and fist-bumped Jeff Smith.
“That was awesome,” Jeff said.
Phil Eager and Mimi Calter, of Ocean City, proudly wore their Flyers jerseys as they anxiously awaited Gritty.
“It’s great to see people showing up in orange and black in the middle of the summer to root for the Flyers,” Eager said, adding that he was a fan long before Gritty.
As Gritty zipped along and weaved around fans on his bicycle, he also decided to take a minute to hop off his wheels.
He did a little dance while atop the Promenade Food Court at 7th Street and the Boardwalk, to the amusement of the spectators.
Gritty was introduced as the team’s mascot in the 2018-19 season. The team had not had an official mascot since Slapshot in 1976.
Calter joked that when Gritty was first unveiled, fans and the general public weren’t exactly thrilled with his appearance.
But he quickly became a fan favorite.
“Two weeks after Gritty was unveiled, we all settled on him,” Calter said with a laugh.
