If you've been to the Garden this year, or watched the C's on television, you've undoubtedly seen them. They are John Cuadras & Davitt Driscoll, both 27, of E.Hartford, Connecticut. However, you probably haven't seen their faces. That's because they're usually covered by awesome, over sized masks.
There's been Paul Pierce, KG, Mike & Tommy, and the one that started it all, Scal. Scalabrine himself may not have noticed the mask at first, but when he did a season later, he sent the Celtics brass to get it from John.
I myself started noticing the masks a couple of seasons ago, and came across John on Twitter. We have since interacted and exchanged emails quite a bit, and it's been exciting to watch the masks blow-up.
I had the chance this week to get some background on the masks, and the person behind them:
John's family were Knicks fans during the 90's, but after Ewing departed and the rest of the team imploded, John became a Celtics fan. He has been loyal to the green for over 10 years now. The idea for the masks was basically a gag-he thought it would be cool to wear one to the Garden, and first did so during the 2007-08 season. Of course tickets were very hard to come by that year, so John wanted to enjoy each game he attended as much as possible. What better way to do so than in a giant Scal mask! The mask was a huge hit, he was on the Jumbotron all night, and he knew he had to make more. Since then, he's worn numerous masks to the Garden, and they've all been huge crowd-pleasers.
John says that his most memorable experience at the Garden was in 2008 when he was chosen to be the "Take-A-Shot" guy. That's right-he had one big shot to win a load of cash. Well, he said that he "missed pretty bad", but the experience of being on the parquet in front of 19.000 screaming fans was well worth it! The way the crowd has taken to the masks, & John has taken to the C's, I'm sure they'll be many more good times at the Garden for he and Davitt.
I think John's masks are just fantastic, and everyone from the fans to the media do to. If you'd like to get your own mask made, Celtics or otherwise, be sure to check out John's site, BigMugg.com.