WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Mohegan Arena is set to go intergalactic as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are paying homage to a local, legendary UFO crash that was never confirmed.
It’s an invasion at Mohegan Arena where aliens are taking over, but they come in peace.
Making friends with Tux and taking part in the Wilkes-barre/Scranton Penguins’ third installment of its community theme night competing as the ‘Carbondale UFO’s’ Saturday.
“We just really wanted to figure out a way to highlight everything that goes on in this area and just really showcase how special NEPA is,” says Allie Debe.
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The night pays tribute to the reported UFO crash on November 9th, 1974 in Carbondale. That night, three boys were at Russell Park when they claimed to have seen a glowing ball from the sky hovering over the silt pond, and then crash into the water; leaving it glowing for hours.
“The national guard came in, kind of shut everything down and made everybody leave because tens of thousands of people gathered there,” says Nicole Curtis.
The mystery ended with police calling it a hoax.
“I think it was a diversion, but they sent a diver into the pond, and pulled out a lantern that they said was lit for nine hours. But people in town all have the same story, that something left on a flatbed truck covered in a tarp.”
That theory is still alive fifty years later being celebrated at a "Carbondalien Festival" organized by Nicole Curtis back in November, and now on jerseys for all to see.
Creative Director Jason Vogel says a lot went into the glow-in-the-dark jerseys including adding an alternate logo of a lantern with an alien inside above the words "I believe.”
“A lot of sketches, a ton of sketches actually, and you go through a bunch of alien heads, UFOs, so you’re not really sure what you want to do and how you want to represent it, but we ended up actually doing a physical ufo on the jersey.”
Getting a one-on-one with the alien ahead of Saturday night’s game, 28/22 News asked the question everybody wants to know: What happened in Russell Park in 1974?
“Well, I wasn’t there, but what I will say is, I can’t say much.”
And there you have it.
Saturday night’s game against the Springfield Thunderbirds at 6:05 p.m. will also showcase local Carbondale artists and its area high school band and choir.
Tickets are still available.
