Our Town, Our Teams: Hockey in Elmira

 by Kevin Earley, Alfred University intern

Hockey in Elmira has a storied history to it that most people wouldn’t really think about. From going to the domes in Pine Valley to watch the Elmira College teams play to weekend nights down at First Arena cheering on the professionals, there have been some memorable times for the sport in our neck of the woods.

Elmira College introduced the sport to its athletic program starting in the 1973-1974 season, and it was a very successful program in those early days. In six of their first 16 seasons, they made NCAA Tournament appearances and reached the finals twice, which is no small feat for any college program. In the entire history of the men’s ice hockey program, however, they have never been crowned National Champions despite having multiple years of success. In the 2001-2002 season, the women’s ice hockey program came into existence, and they started their history by winning back-to-back NCAA Division III National Championships in the first two years of the program. They have only missed the NCAA Tournament in 3 out of their 21 years, and they have been one of the most dominant powerhouses in Division III throughout their entire history.

Professional hockey officially came to Elmira in 2000, when the United Hockey League (UHL) awarded a franchise to the city that would be known as the Elmira Jackals. The brand new First Arena, then known as Coach USA Center, had just been completed with the Jackals beginning play in the 2000-2001 season. After an early exit in that year’s playoffs, the Jackals earned a spot in the Colonial Cup Finals in two of the next four seasons, losing both times. Eddy Lowe was a leading player on most of those playoff teams, and eventually got his number 26 retired by the Jackals in 2007, an honor that has not been given to any other professional player for any Elmira team. For their final few years in the UHL, the Jackals missed the playoffs, and never reached a championship series again.

The UHL began to struggle in the mid-2000s, and in April of 2007 the Jackals joined the ECHL, which is the league two levels down from the National Hockey League and is the NHL’s Double-A affiliate league. The Jackals enjoyed some early success in the ECHL, making the playoffs for their first six years in the league while serving as the primary AA affiliate of teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets, Anaheim Ducks, and Ottawa Senators of the NHL. There was a lot of instability, however, due to ownership changes and financial struggles for the team come 2013. In 2014, things seemed to be looking up when the Jackals became the ECHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL, but those good vibes did not last long as most of Elmira’s talent didn’t really stick around long enough to create a solid team that could compete for a championship, let alone a playoff spot at all. Come 2017, they were owned by the Chemung County Industrial Development Agency (IDA), and as a result of low attendance and arena issues the Jackals folded after playing their final game on April 8th, 2017.

First Arena was pretty much closed throughout the 2017-2018 hockey season, with the exception of the youth hockey programs playing on the recreational rink. In the summer of 2018, it was announced that a new team would come in and play in a league called the Federal Prospects Hockey League, which is a level below the ECHL. The team, owned by Elmira Pioneers baseball team owner Robbie Nichols, became known as the Elmira Enforcers out of tribute to law enforcement. The 2018-2019 season was very good for the new team, but they failed to capture the league championship as they lost in the finals that year. 2019-2020 seemed to be going decently for the Enforcers until the COVID-19 Pandemic hit the United States, causing all sports leagues to shut down and ending the Enforcers’ quest for redemption. The following season was shortened because of the pandemic, and the Enforcers once again did not get the job done as they did not win the title. After the 2020-2021 season, it was announced that the Enforcers would not play in the upcoming season due to Nichols and the Chemung County IDA failing to come to an agreement on a new lease for the arena. The Elmira Enforcers effectively ceased to exist.

Once again, the future of hockey in Elmira was in a cloud of uncertainty. With an arena that had not been properly maintained and with a lack of consistent management, it looked as if professional hockey was done here. However, the arena was leased out and taken over by Steve Donner. It re-opened in December of 2021 under his management for public skating and recreational hockey and it was announced in April of this year that a new FPHL team, the Elmira Mammoth, will be beginning play this coming fall.

Elmira’s hockey history has had many great moments as well as moments that were not so great, and it’s very interesting to look at how much hockey has impacted Chemung County as a whole. It has given the community a lot of exciting memories from the thrilling fights and goals to simply being able to take the family out to the hockey game on a Friday or Saturday night. It’ll be very interesting to see what the future holds for the sport in Elmira.

 

Ernie Davis Day

By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

On the evening of February 3, 1962, around 1,400 people packed into the Notre Dame High School’s gym for the banquet in honor of Elmira’s favorite son, Ernie Davis. It was the last stop in what had been an action-packed day. The banquet was attended by such notables as state and local officials; teachers and coaches from EFA and Syracuse University; representatives from the Cleveland Browns and, of course, Davis’s mother. They were all there to pay tribute to his accomplishments and toast his up-coming career as a professional football player.

Although Ernie Davis is Elmira’s hometown hero, he wasn’t actually born here. He was born in New Salem, Pennsylvania and grew up in Uniontown. At the age of 12, he moved to Elmira with his mother and step-father. Here, he excelled at baseball, basketball, and football. While playing for Elmira Free Academy, he earned two All-American honors in basketball and football and was heavily recruited by colleges. He ended up attending Syracuse University where he played football and majored in economics and finance. In 1961, he became the first Black player to be awarded the Heisman Trophy. After graduating, he was recruited by the Cleveland Browns, signing the most lucrative contract of any NFL rookie up until that time. The citizens of Elmira could not have been prouder.

 

Planning for Ernie Davis Day began in late November 1961, shortly after Davis was awarded the Heisman Trophy. The day overall was going to be sponsored by the Elmira Association of Commerce with assistance from various fraternal groups and corporations. For months, the planning committee worked to schedule events, secure venues, and arrange speakers. They raised funds to buy Davis a new 1962 Thunderbird.

Officially, Ernie Davis Day began at 2pm at the YMCA with a youth meet-and-greet sponsored by Pepsi-Cola. Unofficially, kids began to gather on the sidewalk outside as early as noon. By the time Davis and his friend and fellow football player Jim Brown showed up a little after 1:30pm, there were nearly 400 boys running around. By the time the meet-and-greet officially began, the number had swelled to 700. There were speeches by Ernie Davis, Jim Brown, EFA football coach Bill Wipfler, and others. Each child received a card autographed by Davis and Brown. A few lucky ones actually got to shake their hands.

 

Next, Ernie headed off to an informal press reception at the Notre Dame High School library along with the ever-present Jim Brown, plus coaches Ben Schwartzwalder of Syracuse University and Arthur Modell of the Cleveland Browns. They schmoozed for an hour or so until Governor Nelson Rockefeller arrived around 5:30pm and the real press conference began.  

Around 6pm, the crowd started gathering for the banquet. Speeches began at 9pm after everyone had eaten their fill and there were a lot of speeches. Governor Nelson talked. President Kennedy talked, or at least wired a toast to be read aloud on his behalf. There were toasts by Ernie’s high school and college friends, his teachers and coaches, the mayor, and the Star-Gazette sports writer who had coined the nickname “Elmira Express.”  All of them wanted to celebrate Davis’s accomplishments and the promising start to his pro football career.

Sadly, his promising career never came to be. In the summer of 1962, Davis was diagnosed with leukemia. Ernie Davis died in a Cleveland hospital on May 18, 1963 at the age of 23. His wake at Elmira’s Neighborhood House on May 21 drew over 10,000 mourners. His funeral featured speeches by many of the same teammates, friends, and coaches who had spoken at his banquet. Even President Kennedy sent a statement to be read aloud. It was, in many ways, a dark reflection of the earlier, happier Ernie Davis Day.

Drew "Lefty" Rader

 by Susan Zehnder, Education Director

Wouldn’t it be great to travel back in time to find out the missing part of a story? A case in point involves "Lefty" Rader, a local baseball star, whose 1921 foray into the major leagues lasted two innings of one game.

"Lefty" was born Drew Leon Rader in 1901 to parents James Benjamin Franklin Rader and Ida May Vanatta Rader of Elmira. His father was a fire fighter then worked as an engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Rader was the couple's only child. They lived on Jefferson Street, later moving to Pennsylvania Avenue to live above the Red Brick Food Mart, a small neighborhood grocery they owned and operated. 

Former Red Brick Food Mart

Young  Rader attended Grammar School Number 9 and finished 8^th grade in 1914. He entered Elmira Free Academy that fall. In the EFA yearbook for 1920, it notes that senior Rader was “slow and steady” in his academic pursuits, which may account for why he shows up as a sophomore in the 1916, 1917, and 1918 yearbooks. He graduated when he was 20 years old in 1920.

Grammar School, No. 9

A 21^st century lens suggests World War I, the 1918 flu pandemic, or lack of academic skills may have slowed his progress, but there’s no evidence for this. There is evidence that he had athletic and management skills. As a sophomore, Rader played on, and was team captain, for the varsity basketball team, something he repeated as a junior when the team had a championship season. As a sophomore, junior, and senior, he competed in the high jump for the track team. As a junior he was manager for the varsity baseball team and served on the school’s Athletic Council. And in his senior year, in addition to athletics, Rader served on the Athletic Council, sang second tenor in the Senior Glee club, and helped organize the Senior Reception, a large formal event. Outside of school he was Captain of Company B 10^th regiment Military training commission. The wide range of his activities looks familiar to any current student applying to college. The description next to his senior portrait says that despite taking his time with academics “(h)e intends, however, to go to college…” which he did.  He enrolled and graduated from Syracuse University. So if Rader was the baseball manager, but didn't play for the school’s baseball team how was it he earned a berth as a pitcher for the 1921 Pittsburgh Pirates?

Apparently Rader showed such athletic promise and pitching prowess, he'd been been recruited and played for the Arctic League, a local semi-pro team. Articles in the Elmira Star Gazette praised his pitching, cool headedness, and overall potential for success in the game. The reporter also wrote of comments his father made that nothing would interfere with his son’s college aspirations.

Rader was 6’ 2” and 185 lbs.  Described as “husky” for his time, it was his left-handed pitching that earned him his nickname. Crowds would gather to watch him pitch. It was also his powerful southpaw style that brought in major league recruiters. Impressed, they offered Rader a spot on the 1921 Pittsburgh Pirates team. The 1921 season was notable for another reason. It was the year professional games were broadcast using the new medium of radio, and the  Pirates' games were among the first to hit the airwaves. 

When the twenty-year old joined the team, he proved in practice he could hit and throw with both hands. Things looked very promising. On July 18^th, 1921, Rader made his debut in the seventh inning of a game against the New York Giants. He gave up two hits but kept the Giants scoreless. The Pirates went on to win the game that night. Later, two of his teammates and two of his opponents from that game were inducted into the Hall of Fame. In October the Giants won the 1921 World Series against the New York Yankees.

In February of 1922, Rader was traded to the Minneapolis Millers, a minor league team for “more schooling.” He never played for Millers, apparently unhappy with how he was treated. The feeling must have been mutual since he was placed on a voluntary retired list that May. He approached the Arctics about playing in Elmira again, but was turned down by the manager when his salary request was deemed “too high.”

In the fall of 1921 Rader entered Syracuse University. His affiliation with a professional team however came with restrictions. He was prohibited to play with the university baseball team. He studied business administration, was active in the Square and Compass club, manager of the Boar’s Head Dramatic Society, and a member of Beta Theta Pi, an honorary accounting fraternity. When he was a junior he was appointed team manager. 

Rader graduated from Syracuse in 1926 and in 1931, he married twenty-six year old Annette J. Cullen from a suburb of New York City. Rader worked for the New York Telephone Company and they lived in Rockville Center, on Long Island, NY. The last reference to him playing ball shows up in a small article that mentions him playing for the 1931 Red Stars, a team sponsored by Macy’s. 

Here the trail ends. Rader died in 1975 with no obituary printed in the newspapers. An online search brings up a picture of him wearing a Pirates ball cap. This picture was added just a few years ago.

What circumstances stopped him from excelling as a ball player? Was he able to pursue his interests in managing and leadership the rest of his life? And what advice would he give to young players today? One can only dream.

The Optimist Club

 By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

On the evening of June 22, 1972, the Elmira Pioneers were supposed to play Three Rivers at Dunn Field. Hurricane Agnes had other plans. She rained out the game and then flooded out the stadium. By the time her floodwaters receded, Dunn Field was a mess and the Elmira Pioneers were homeless. The last time that had happened in 1946, it was well over a month before the Pioneers were able to play there again. This time, though, they made it home in record time thanks to the help of five special women.

1972 had already been a bit of a rough year for the Pioneers. Years of falling attendance had lead the Kansas City Royals to drop them as a farm team. The new owners set the ambitious goal of 100,000 fans in attendance for the season, painting “100,000 or bust” on the back fence. Agnes’s floodwaters washed away portions of the fences in left and right field leaving only “000 or bust” behind. In the aftermath, eight inches of silt covered the field and mud coated much of the stadium seating. The concession stand was filled with mud and rotted food and the clubhouse wasn’t much better.  Much of the team’s equipment was ruined too. Some 60 dozen balls were lost, along with all the team’s gloves and most of the bats. On the plus side, team manager Len Johnson and his wife Alice were able to salvage and wash the team’s uniforms. They also temporarily housed players Carl Richardson, Dennis Queen, and Harry Shaughnessy whose homes had been destroyed by the flood.

Surveying the damage, team owners Kip Horsburgh and Carl Fazio didn’t have much hope in getting back into Dunn Field before August. They hadn’t counted on Alice Johnson and her friends. As the team played away game after away game, Alice Johnson, Jan Kern, Vicki Detter, Cathy Eldridge, and Marianne Relic did everything they could to bring the team home. Johnson, Kern, Detter, and Eldridge all had husbands on the team and they wanted them back. Marianne Relic worked as a secretary for Horsburgh and Fazio, but was no less determined. The team owners dubbed them The Optimist Club. Together, the five of them hosed down the seating, scrubbed bathrooms, and cleaned just about everything. They had help from the Elmira Parks Department, which worked on clearing and replanting the field, and some prisoners from the Elmira Correctional Facility, who helped with some of the heavy lifting.  In an interview, Alice Johnson claimed that her babysitter had put in 160 hours of work minding her kids while she and the other ladies cleaned. 

The Optimists at work, courtesy of the Elmira Star-Gazette

 All their hard work paid off. On July 18, the Elmira Pioneers returned to Dunn Field for their first home game in weeks. They played a double header against the Reading Phillies before a crowd of 1,177 fans. It was the highest turn out of the season thus far. They won the first game and lost the second. In between the two, the team honored the Optimist Club with special jackets and a round of applause. 

Detter, Relic, Eldridge, & Johnson, courtesy of the Elmira Star-Gazette

 

Elmira Pioneers: What’s in a Name?

 By Rachel Dworkin, Archivist

 

Since professional baseball first began in Elmira in 1888, the local team has gone through a lot of names. They were the Babies, the Gladiators, the Jags, the Colonels, the Red Jackets, and the Red Wings. Most of the names didn’t last more than a few years. Only the Pioneers have stood the test of time.

1935 was quite the year for Elmira baseball. Since 1931, Elmira had been home to the St. Louis Cardinals’ farm team, the Elmira Red Wings, but, after a rough 1934 season, the Cardinals decided to sell. Desperate to keep professional baseball in the area, a group of local businessmen formed the Elmira Community Baseball Club to buy the team. Throughout the first quarter of the year, the club held a series of fundraisers including a bowling contest and ticketed dinners in order to pay the rent on Dunn Field and buy things like uniforms. Before they could buy new uniforms though, they would need a new team name.

On March 1, 1935, the Elmira Star-Gazette and Elmira Advertiser launched a naming contest which would run through March 15^th. Participants could clip a contest coupon from the paper and send it in along with their name, address, and suggested team name. The names would be reviewed by the sports editors of the Star-Gazette and Advertiser, Edward Van Dyke and Glenn O. Sherwood, and the president of the Elmira Community Baseball Club, Arthur L. Hoffman. The winner would receive free season tickets. If anyone back in 1935 had been familiar with the Boaty McBoatface public naming fiasco of 2016, they would have known just how terrible an idea asking the public for names can be. 

Name contest coupon from Elmira Star-Gazette

 The naming process was contentious from the jump. The leaders behind the Elmira Community Baseball Club were also the folks behind the Arctic League charity. Quite a few people wanted to name the new team the Arctics in their honor, but the contest rules explicitly stated that anyone suggesting that name would be automatically disqualified. So many people wrote in to the papers complaining about it that finally Harry Lagonegro, treasurer of both the Elmira Community Baseball Club and the Arctic League, had to do an interview where he explained why. Apparently they didn’t want people mixing the two of them up. It was probably a good call.

The contest ended on March 15^th and, on March 18^th, the three-man naming committee made their fateful decision. For nearly 5 hours, Van Dyke, Sherwood, and Hoffman chain smoked their way through 8 cigars and 3 packs of cigarettes as they read through 632 letters with 977 name contest coupons.  Despite the Arctics having been disqualified as a name from the get-go, it was suggested by 972 different people. There were two votes for the Pioneers, and one fan suggested they name the team after Hoffman, Sherwood, and Van Dyke. Needless to say, they went with Pioneers. The name was announced the following evening at a celebratory banquet. 

Elmira Pioneers in the original team uniform, 1936

 Not everyone was happy about it. Almost immediately, a flame war erupted in the sports page editorial sections. Matt Richardson said the name sounded like a volunteer fire company. George McCann thought it was juvenile and insipid and lacked punch. According to him, more than a few of the attendees at the banquet where the name was revealed were just as dissatisfied. The editors of the sports pages fired back trying to justify their choice. Regardless of what the name’s opponents thought, the club directors had approved it and the uniforms had been ordered. The team would be the Elmira Pioneers and that was final.

And they have been since 1935, but there was a brief moment in 1995 when it looked like they might not. Clyde Smoll, then owner of the team, planned to move the team to Lowell, Massachusetts and take the Pioneers name with him. Bill Cummings, owner of new in-coming team, wanted to keep the name. Their lawyers went back and forth, trying to reach an arrangement. In the end, the county stepped in reaching an eleventh-hour deal in January 1996. The county would waive the $8,000 contract buy-out clause in the Dunn Field lease agreement if Smoll would just let the Pioneers name stay in Elmira. 

Now, 86 years after the name was chosen, the Pioneers are an Elmira institution.
Pandemic willing, we may even get to see them play again this year!

A Tale of Two Motorcycle Clubs

by Erin Doane, Curator

“There is no sport that is more thrilling than motorcycling. The powerful little vehicles will give a man all the excitement he is able to meet.” – Elmira Star-Gazette, December 5, 1910

Henderson motorcycle, early 1910s

In 1867, Ernest Michaux of Paris, France fitted a small steam engine to a velocipede and people have been in love with motorcycles ever since. Motorcycling became widely popular in the United States after Indian Motorcycle and Harley Davison began producing vehicles in the early 1900s.

Elmira Motorcycle Club

By 1910, the Elmira Motorcycle Club was actively hosting events like winter rides for its members. At its annual meeting in January 1911, the club received 31 new applications for membership. The club was officially incorporated that year.

J. M. Enyedy, Bertha Enyedy, Oscar Enyedy, and unknown woman with their Indian motorcycles, 1910s

In 1911, the club also received the sanction of the Federation of American Motorcyclists (which went on to become the American Motorcyclist Association) to hold races on Decoration Day at the Maple Avenue Driving Park. The event drew record crowds with motorcycle clubs from Rochester, Syracuse, Auburn, Cortland, and Binghamton attending the event. 18 professional riders competed in seven different races. The grand prize was $50 in cash. The races became an annual event. In 1912, the purse grew to $250 and the grand prize was a side car attachment for the winner’s motorcycle.

Motorcyclists gathered by the Madison Avenue Bridge in Elmira

The club was very active from 1911 through 1915. It kept clubrooms on West Water Street where it held monthly meetings. It organized motorcycle outings, endurance runs, and races. It also hosted non-motorcycling activities for its members like dances and trap shoots. The first annual New York State convention of the Federation of American Motorcyclists was held in Elmira under the auspices of the Elmira Motorcycle Club July 4-6, 1913.

Motorcycle outing, 1910s

Suddenly, in 1915, everything fell apart for the Elmira Motorcycle Club. On September 28, members met to discuss plans to purchase a new clubhouse as the clubrooms on West Water Street were inadequate for its growing needs. But then on October 23, the club announced that it was disbanding. Membership had fallen from around 100 to 39, and the organization was no longer able to survive financially.

I’m sure there is more to that story, but nothing else was reported about the club in the newspaper until 1920 when local motorcycle enthusiasts revived it. The magazine Motorcycle Enthusiast in Action reported that “riders of all makes of machines in the Elmira, N.Y. district are urged to join the Elmira Motorcycle Club just organized.” The rejuvenated club held races, hill climbs, secret time runs, fox chases, outings, and motoring tours until it disappeared from local newspapers again after 1927.

Gathering of motorcyclists, early 1920s

Chemung County Motorcycle Club

The constitution and bylaws of the Chemung County Motorcycle Club were first adopted January 1, 1930. Perhaps members of the Elmira Motorcycle Club rolled into the new county-wide club. The activities of the club were not well publicized in local newspapers until 1944. It hosted round and square dances in Elmira Heights and Breesport where members were encouraged to wear riding outfits. It also held corn and wiener roasts. And of course, it was involved in all types of motorcycle outings and races.

Members of the Chemung County Motorcycle Club, c. 1940s

Beyond promoting the sport of motorcycling and sponsoring motorcycle meets and races, one of the other goals of the Chemung County Motorcycle Club was to help promote the safe driving of the vehicles. To that end, club members led by example. The club won the American Motorcycle Association’s safety award banner three years in a row from 1945 to 1947. Its 23 members maintained an accident-free record of 225,145 miles over that three-year period.

Presentation of the American Motorcycle Association’s safety award banner to the Chemung County Motorcycle Club, 1948

Throughout the late 1940s and 1950s, the club sponsored motorcycle races at the county fairgrounds in Horseheads. The races usually took place in late August or early September, sometimes as part of fair activities and sometimes as stand-alone events. In 1952, the club got permission to hang a banner across North Main Street in Elmira at Wisner Park to promote that year’s races.

View of motorcycle racing from the grandstand at the fairgrounds, 1948

Professional motorcycle racers from all around the Northeast and Canada competed in the races, drawn by up to $900 in prize money. Newspaper articles were quick to point out that these drivers were exclusively piloting racing cycles, not street bikes. The big racing machines had no brakes and drivers used a skid plate on their left foot to help make turns. The races held events in three classes – novice, amateur and expert – but locals usually did not participate because they did not have racing bikes to run. 

Professional motorcycle racing at the fairgrounds, late 1940s

The Chemung County Motorcycle Club became the Chemung County Motorcycle Club, Inc. in August 1955 when it filed incorporation papers at the county clerk’s office. Six years later, in July 1961, it seems to have disbanded. It transferred property on Upper Hoffman street, which had served as their clubhouse, to an independent buyer, and the club name never appeared in the Star-Gazette again.

Pair of local motorcyclists

New Year, New Mascot

by Susan Zehnder, Director of Education 

February already, it seems the year just started. Regardless, it’s still a great time of year to reflect on new things. While new resolutions, new diets and new ideas abound, here, with a change of the educational baton at the Chemung County Historical Society, the new season of school and outreach programs has kicked off. For us, it’s a chance to encourage young historians from all over the county to learn more about our museum and the stories inside. When I recently asked a kindergarten class what’s inside a history museum, I was delighted to hear the reply, “everything!” And, cheering us on is our trusty and beloved museum ambassador Mark the Mammoth already known on Facebook and Twitter for his quirky antics. 

Our mammoth loosely represents the Big Horn Mammoth tusk or horn discovered in the Chemung River similar to the one prominently displayed in our main gallery. It is the confessed current favorite museum artifact of our own Director Bruce Whitmarsh, and is our mascot of mirth. Seems to fit, as Mark gets his name from another important Mark associated with Chemung County.

Speaking of mascots, did you know at the end of last year a new museum in Whiting, Indiana opened as The Mascot Hall of Fame? Looking up the dictionary definition for mascot, I find they are supposed to bring good luck! So here are a few other local lucky mascots they might consider:

First, we have the Elmira Pioneers in 1936 posing here as 2^nd half champions.  Note their mascot was youngster H. Arnold, who probably doubled as their bat boy. He looks pretty pleased with his role, I’m just wondering what happened to the first half champions?

Likewise, many local homeowners may have considered the LaFrance Fire Engine’s Dalmatian mascot especially lucky when they needed help. 

Our museum collection also houses a few other examples of local mascots. For example, we’ve got a bumper sticker from the Southside Green Hornets,

 and an image of Elmira Free Academy’s Blue Devil mascot.

EFA is proud of notable alumni like Hal Roach (1908), Ernie Davis (1958), Bob DeLaney (1942), Tommy Hilfiger (1970), and Eileen Collins (1974). Today, known as the Ernie Davis Academy and serving grades 8-9, their mascot remains a blue devil, but they identify as the Elmira Express, a nickname given to the legendary Heisman winning Ernie Davis, a player noted for his exceptional speed.

Over the years, mascots change. Today, our local Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League Elmira Pioneers use an image of a fierce pioneer as their logo but their mascot Stitches is the one who cavorts with the crowd to bring the team luck.

   (photo supplied by Elmira Pioneers)

And the new Federal Hockey League Franchise, The Enforcers have their version too. While their logo shows a burly police officer, their good luck charm may be their mascot Captain K-9.

  (photo supplied by Elmira Enforcers)

Like all the other mascots, he  shows up at games to engage the audience, and charm the crowd. He is a dog who accompanies the Enforcers ice hockey team at home and away games, strutting his stuff.

Our own icy mascot has changed too. Here at the Chemung County Historical Society, we’ve kicked off our new year introducing a new version of our mascot on Twitter and Facebook and now Instagram. He’s a smaller, leaner dude with just the right attitude.

 Already out visiting school classrooms, fairs, and even posting some of his exploits (with help), we’re finding he’s a good match for February’s cold and ice.  

Follow our icy @MarktheMammoth on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and our wish that he brings you good luck too!