GNASH | | NHL Affiliate: Nashville Predators
Height: 6-0
Weight: 250 lbs.
Favorite team: Nashville PredatorsSuper skills: Rappels from the rafters, swings from ceiling beams into the crowd and flies trapeze-style underneath the Jumbotron Little known fact: He hates when people, especially other mascots, pronounce the "G" in his name Rival: Thrash, Iceburgh |
Gnash is the official mascot of the Nashville Predators who loves to sink his fangs into the high-flying stunts each night for the fans at the Gaylord Entertainment Center. The Predators' mascot learned to swallow fear early on in his career when he plied his trade for other professional and amateur sports teams, before coming to Nashville with the team in the 1998-99 season.
Before becoming a ferocious Predator, Gnash paid his dues by not only performing his act coast to coast, he also shattered some bones and tore some ligaments along the way in pursuit of a smile. Last season he traveled with the team overseas to Japan where the Predators took on the Pittsburgh Penguins in a two-game series to open the 2000-01 NHL season. While visiting the Orient, Gnash started up a bitter feud with Iceburgh, as the Penguin mascot didn't like the fact that the Predators' cheerleader was more popular than him. He also bumped heads with one of the writers here at NHL.com in Japan when he found a negative story on one of the Predator players. The fact that the writer went back home to the states with a broken ankle was of course merely coincidental according to Gnash.
Gnash thrives on the pressure of being an NHL mascot and loves to flaunt his moves to visiting clubs, and their mascots, especially in Atlanta which is home for the Thrashers and his most-hated rival, Thrash.
As for Gnash's emergence on the NHL scene, it all started in 1971 when construction crews discovered the bones of a saber-tooth tiger in a cave below the city, proving that they once inhabited this region. Archaeologists know that the powerful cat survived the Ice Age longer than any other mammal, making it the dominant predator on the planet for thousands of years. The ice has returned, and apparently so has the
Saber-tooth tiger.
During that time in '71, it was believed that no archaeological find would ever match their recent discovery. Then in 1994, while digging the foundations for the new Nashville Arena, an even greater discovery was made. Deep beneath the surface, down where the earth is cold and dark, the drills and jackhammers unearthed a beast, a baby saber tooth tiger, completely frozen in a huge block of ice. The site had obviously laid undisturbed for millions of years.
Rather than subject the creature to an existence of endless scientific research and study living in a cage, they looked for a place where he could feel at home. The cat would need a place that felt like a cave,
where he would hear the familiar roar of his own kind, and above all else, he needed ice!
The crew placed the frozen cub in the center of the arena to thaw. When they returned the next morning, the ice had melted and the creature was gone. They searched for days, but never found him. They feared that he was gone forever, but they were wrong. The little beast had gone in search of other tigers in this strange new world.
After several years, he had given up hope of ever finding any of his kind again. Then on October 10th, 1998, he thought he heard the familiar roar of other saber tooth tigers. Instead, what he found were Predators fans cheering their team on opening night. Finally, he found a place where he felt at home?the Gaylord Entertainment Center.
Now all grown up, the huge beast lives in the dark corners of the arena, and only comes out of hiding during Predator games when he hears the familiar Predators roar that reminds him of times long, long ago.
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