{"id":135734,"date":"2025-09-05T23:10:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T23:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/135734\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T23:10:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T23:10:08","slug":"florida-panthers-mourn-loss-of-super-fan-steve-elario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/135734\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Panthers Mourn Loss of Super Fan Steve Elario"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Panthers are mourning the loss of dedicated super fan Steve Elario, a yacht broker who resided in Fort Lauderdale who became a favorite of those attending games in Sunrise.<\/p>\n<p>Elario was a fixture sitting in the lower bowl of Florida\u2019s Sunrise arena, his resemblance to wrestling superstar Ric Flair often bringing him onto the center scoreboard whenever the team scored.<\/p>\n<p>This tradition at Florida games came years ago when someone in game presentation spotted the light-haired Elario for one of those \u2018Looks Like\u2019 games on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n<p>Soon, every time the Panthers scored, the team would play Flair\u2019s patented \u2018Whoo!\u2019 and show Elario to uproarious cheers.<\/p>\n<p>Elario, who was born in Newburyport, Mass. and moved to Florida in 1979, loved being a part of the Panthers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey do a \u2018whoo!\u2019,\u201d Elario told Florida play-by-play voice Steve Goldstein for a CBS-4 news piece during the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs when asked how fans interact with him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m on Las Olas, I get a \u2018whoo!\u2019 I was in Moscow, got a \u2018whoo!\u2019 I have met people all over the world, and they still do it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Elario was a big fan of the Panthers \u2014 and they were big fans of his.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you had a big moment in a game, you knew he was going to be there,\u201d Florida general manager Bill Zito said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeyond that, just a wonderful man. Whenever you saw him before a game he was so excited. \u2018We\u2019re going to do great!\u2019 And if you saw him after a game and things didn\u2019t go so well, he was like \u2018Don\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll get \u2018em next time!\u2019 He was always positive. Everyone loved him. He was one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">An enduring tradition that will carry on. <\/p>\n<p>You will be missed.<\/p>\n<p>Reply with &#8220;woo!&#8221; in memory of Steve Elario. \ud83d\udd4a\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ssGsVs1Apq\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ssGsVs1Apq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FlaPanthers\/status\/1964087218399748286?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Elario not only got to see his favorite team win the Stanley Cup, but also got to take part in the celebration.<\/p>\n<p>He was on the ice for the Stanley Cup celebrations after the Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in the Final, and was also part of the Cup celebration on Fort Lauderdale beach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut of course he was,\u2019\u2019 Zito said. \u201cWhere else would he be? He\u2019s the guy. There\u2019s only one. And he is going to be missed. Absolutely going to be missed. A really nice guy who was fun to be around. I was always happy to speak with him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou could not support the Florida Panthers better than he did.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<p>News of Elario\u2019s passing spread throughout social media on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n<p>A cause of death and word of services have not been made public.<\/p>\n<p>This story will be updated when services for Mr. Elario are announced.<\/p>\n<p>Elario\u2019s final Facebook post, which was published on Wednesday, was a picture with the words:<\/p>\n<p>Money can\u2019t buy happiness<\/p>\n<p>but it can buy hockey tickets and that\u2019s basically the same thing<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/floridahockeynow.com\/membership-account\/subscribe-to-fhn\/\" onclick=\"ga(&#039;send&#039;, &#039;event&#039;, { eventCategory: &#039;adclick&#039;, eventAction: &#039;click&#039;, eventLabel: &#039;fhn-plus-post&#039;});\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Get-FHN.png\" alt=\"Get FHN+ today!\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Panthers are mourning the loss of dedicated super fan Steve Elario, a yacht broker who resided&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-135734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}