Ice Flyers fans have a special goal dance. The 'folklore' origin continues to be a mystery

There’s one unique tradition that the Pensacola Ice Flyers have.

Whether a fan has been going since day one with the now-defunct Ice Pilots, or if it’s their first hockey game with the Ice Flyers, they get to see the tradition – and experience it.

And if that fan is lucky, it can happen multiple – upward of three or four – times a game.

Every time the Ice Flyers put a puck in the back of the net, amid a goal horn and a frenzy of cheering, Pensacola fans at the Bay Center do a dance – swinging their arms up and down in front of them.

At the same time, the popular in-arena song “Chelsea Dagger” by the Fratellis, is blasted around the arena.

“When they score, that’s happening. Nothing’s stopping us,” said Ralph Overly, a season-ticket holder for the last three seasons. “It’s fabulous. … I want to see it more often.”

“When I get asked about what (my) favorite part about the game (is), it’s the goal dance. It truly is,” Ice Flyers owner Greg Harris said. “Once we score a goal, I am excited, I'm pumped up we just scored. But then I look around the crowd and I see the kids, the parents, the families, the friends, the colleagues, they're all celebrating together.”

‘We just do it’

New fans who come to the Bay Center and watch the dance unfold after a goal commonly don’t celebrate with long-time fans the first time around. It’s not a common thing to happen at a hockey game.

That’s when Overly said they have to “poke them and say, ‘Look, you’ve got to get in the groove here.’”

“You want all the exercise you can get,” Overly said with a laugh.

“We get the new people doing everything – the chants, the dance,” said Anne Smerekanicz, who has followed Pensacola hockey since the Ice Pilots were in town.

And for a majority of the fans asked about the dance and why they do it, it’s just second nature.

“'A lot of new people show up. They’ll ask, ‘Why do you do that?’” Smerekanicz said. “I respond, ‘I don’t know. We just do it.’”

It’s also special for Harris, especially when he has family from out of town come to the games. In early December, Harris’ sister, nice and nephew came to their first Ice Flyers games. They were equally as confused when Pensacola scored its first goal.

“By the second goal, I was like, ‘Come on, get up and do the goal dance.’ And all three of them were up doing the goal dance because that was their first-ever Ice Flyers game,” Harris said. “They had never been to Pensacola or ever seen an Ice Flyers game, so it was special for me to see that, to see my family celebrate that for the first time, see my niece and nephew for you know celebrate that. And that's probably the best part.”

So that struck some curiosity – where did the dance come from? How did it start?

Tammy Wehmeier, another long-time season ticket holder, has watched Pensacola hockey since day one – only missing “maybe five games” from the first day of the Ice Pilots until now. At first, she thought it began with a small fan club of the Ice Pilots and it picked up pace after that.

But during the third period of the Ice Flyers’ game on Thursday against Peoria, Wehmeier came with a different story. It began with a single fan back in the Ice Pilot days who decided to do the dance, instead of the normal clapping and cheering.

“Toward the beginning, in the section (behind the goal), instead of clapping when we got a goal, he started doing (the dance). Somebody asked him what he was doing and he goes, ‘That just makes more sense,’” Wehmeier said. “So one guy started it. Isn’t that something?”

But that’s the beauty of the dance – there’s not just one story that leads to the beginning. Harris mentioned it being some kind of “folklore.” He’s heard stories that there was an old graphic on the old scoreboard that “looked like (their) goal dance with some character.”

“Because even when you ask Ice Pilot season ticket holders, you'll get different stories there as well. But it is, it’s completely unique,” Harris said. “Our fans love it, opposing teams hate it. Opposing teams hate our goal dance and hate our goal song. But it's just definitely something that's really a part of being an Ice Flyers fan.”

Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola Ice Flyers fans with unique goal celebration