Celebration Continues As Blue Wahoos Take Championship Trophy On Downtown Tour

With City Hall as the first stop, the Blue Wahoos transported their Southern League championship trophy Monday on a Pensacola downtown tour.

Pensacola mayor Grover Robinson pointed out at his weekly news conference Monday about the good fortune of honoring the Blue Wahoos for their first outright championship season.

“I am very happy to be the first mayor to hoist that trophy,” he said. “I don’t expect to be the last, but I am happy to be the first.”

Team owners Quint and Rishy Studer were joined at the presentation by members of the Blue Wahoos front office staff, as well as team mascot Kazoo.

From that point, the trophy was then brought to various entities within the Studer Family of Companies. Stops were made at the Bodacious Bookstore and Café’ on East Intendencia Street, the Bodacious Shops, along with adjacent Bubba’s Sweet Spot on Palafox Street, and the Oyster Bay Boutique Hotel on Bayfront Parkway.

Visitors were able to take photos and see the gold-plated replica trophy the Blue Wahoos received, following their deciding game win last week against the Tennessee Smokies.

The Blue Wahoos plan to continue their trophy tour throughout the community during the next couple months.

“I didn’t realize how hard this was, until I read that the Tennessee Smokies had not won the championship since 1978,” Quint Studer said. ”So we are really excited. We want to congratulate the Miami Marlins because they were a big driver of this.

“We have no control over what happens on the field. That’s all the Miami Marlins. They do every player, they do every move. That’s truly where you can see the culture. We want to congratulate, the players, the coaches. And Kevin Randel, the manager. Just a marvelous job creating the right culture.”

When speaking at the mayor’s news conference Monday, Studer relayed his congratulatory message to Randel after the title-clinching win and the immediate response.

“(Randel) talked about how much the players liked playing in Pensacola,” Studer said. “He talked about the fans. When you look at our fan base, it really is quite remarkable. I think our fan base has been marvelous.”

Robinson has been an avid supporter of Pensacola’s sports teams. During his term, he has celebrated with the Pensacola Ice Flyers for their Southern Professional Hockey League title and the University of West Florida football team’s 2019 NCAA Division II national championship.

“The (Blue Wahoos franchise) has brought so much activity and vibrancy to our community,” said Robinson, who praised Quint and Rishy Studer for their investments and business ownerships downtown and funding of important community seminars like EntreCon business, entrepreneurship and leadership conference coming up on November 16-17 and the monthly Civic Con events.

“All those things have really changed this community,” Robinson said. “And we don’t talk about Pensacola’s potential anymore. We talk about where we are winning. And the things we have gotten. The community has been winning for awhile and now it is showing up on the (sports) field.”

Studer thanked Robinson for his support for the Blue Wahoos and Blue Wahoos Stadium.

“Mayor Robinson was for this park, and for this team, before there was a team,” Studer said. “He was the one who helped get the new (synthetic) turf and the LED lights (installed in early 2022) which were vital for us and all what he did as a (Escambia County) commissioner.”