Harry the Hornet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harry the Hornet is the mascot of Watford F.C. He is a attractively decorated in the club colours of yellow, red and black. The club are nicknamed The Hornets.

He has undergone at least three different guises over the years, as the various Marketing Managers at the club have sought to make the character appeal to the club supporters. He looked quite fierce when he first became a regular on the touchline at Vicarage Road in 1995, but has now adopted a very child-friendly demeanor.

On 28 August 1998, Harry got married to Harriet the Hornet. The marriage took place on the pitch at Vicarage Road before the start of the game against Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., and was witnessed by Wolfie, the Wolves mascot, who acted as Harry's best man. The club went to town on the event, and had a full wedding ceremony for Harry and Harriet, rounded off with a sing-along to the chorus of "Elton John's Taylor-Made Army". Elton John was Chairman and Graham Taylor was Manager of the club at the time.

From that point on, Harriet joined her husband on the pitch at most home games. They are very similar in appearance, but Harriet wears a much longer football shirt, which is made to look like a dress, and has long eye-lashes.

In 2000, Harry won the second Mascot Grand National held at Huntingdon race course. Harriet came second in 2001.

The club has used the popularity of the mascot to sell club merchandise, and his face can be found on baby gear, mugs and T-Shirts, all of which are available from the club shop. Most noteably the club has also immortalised Harry by selling him as a plush toy. Again, the plush toy has been issued in many guises (at least five), the earliest one being on sale in the late 1980s, the latest one featuring in the club's current merchandise catalogue. In 2004, the club commissioned a local artist, Alex Bennett, to creat artwork of Harry to appear in the matchday programme.

Harry is not restricted to the confines of Vicarage Road, and is often seen at away grounds. He was present at the play-off final at Wembley Stadium in 1999 and at the Millennium Stadium Cardiff in 2006, both of which Watford won. He regularly visits schools and hospitals in the Hertfordshire region. In 2006, when the town of Watford hosted an Italian weekend, Harry's cousin was let loose on an unsuspecting public. Harry the Hornetto, looking suspiciously like Harry, but with Italian clothes and a pencil moustache entertained the crowd.

Harry remains one of the longest established and most recognised mascots in the football league.

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