Why the Cincinnati Cyclones changed its name to the Corn Dogs after a record-setting night

CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Cyclones have changed the team name to the Corn Dogs on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

The name change comes after the team set a record for donations in Saturday's Teddy Bear Toss night game, and a certain stuffed corn dog went viral online.

Here's how Teddy Bear Toss works: Fans in attendance at the Heritage Bank Center bring a stuffed animal to donate. When the Cyclones score its first goal, everyone throws their stuffies on the ice.

The new record set was 13,319 stuffed animals collected, including one very special 5-foot tall corn dog.

So about that corn dog: Usually people throw their stuffed animals directly on the ice with as strong of a heave as they can make. In the curious case of the corn dog, it was passed around the 2nd-biggest crowd in Cyclones history (14,258 fans) before finally making its way on the ice. It even re-emerged in the crowd after the Teddy Bear Toss was cleaned up.

It's not totally known what was so special about this corn dog, other than its height and spiffy red bow tie, but it brought the entire crowd together, sharing in the joy of donating a record amount of stuffed animals. It does appear that instead of its intended donation destination, the corn dog movement was so strong, that the Cyclones kept it, and have put it to work around the ice, as shown on the team's Instagram stories Monday morning.

The 'Clones did lose to Toledo, 4-3, but the corn dog won our hearts.

The team currently sits in 9th place in the Western Conference ECHL standings with the mid-way point in the season coming up soon. The team's next home game is January 19.