Momma Wahoo Leaves Enduring Memories As All-Time Blue Wahoos Fan 

A row up from field level in Section 102, just a short bunt from the home team dugout, Momma Wahoo was a beloved fixture every season at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

She sat in the aisle seat whenever she could attend games and greeted everyone who walked by.

“It was all like a family to her,” said Rodger Davis, the long-time usher who has worked that section and ensured player and fan safety. “She would get up and talk to everyone on the way to their seats and it didn’t matter if she knew you or not.

“She just loved going to the ballpark, talking to people, enjoying the game and was so supportive of the players. It was like her home in a way.”

That seat, her smile, and her love of being at Blue Wahoos games, will now have an everlasting memory.

Momma Wahoo, whose real name is Mary Langston, passed away this week. The Pensacola native was 90 years-old.

Back on August 19, during the Blue Wahoos game that Saturday night against the Montgomery Biscuits, Langston was treated to a surprise 90th birthday party among her friends and fellow season ticket holders inside the lounge on the first base side.

She was provided buttons, a crown and feted like a queen. Momma Wahoo had an unforgettable night.

“The smile on her face… she absolutely loved every minute of it,” Davis said. “It made her feel so special and I’m so grateful it happened.”

Her son, Michael Langston, vice president and civil market director for Baskerville-Donovan Inc., the Pensacola-based engineering and construction company that helped build Blue Wahoos Stadium, sent a thank you message to Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer to thank the team.

“The staff at the stadium treated my mom like a celebrity. They were so caring and thoughtful,” he wrote as part of the special note.

Mary Langston was a 1950 graduate of Pensacola High. That year coincided with the first season for the PHS football team playing in Jim Scoggins Stadium on Maxwell Street, where the Tigers have played for all these years.

Michael Langston said his mother grew up at Fort Pickens, back before there was even a road connecting the island to Pensacola Beach. There were several families living at the Fort Pickens area during World War II.

Michael said his mother took a ferry from Fort Pickens to a landing on A Street in Pensacola, so she could go to school. Her father, Ulmer Wilson, was in the Coast Guard during those years.

When Blue Wahoos Stadium was being built in 2011, Momma Wahoo told her son she wanted that particular seat as part of the company’s charter season-ticket row of seats. She attended the historic opening night on April 5, 2012.

“She wanted the best seat she could get and thought that particular one was it,” Davis said.

Michael Langston thanked Davis and fellow usher Renee Jones, who also has been an usher since the first season working Section 102, for their friendship with Momma Wahoo.

"They both came and visited her last week while see was still able to communicate," he said in the note Quint Studer and the Blue Wahoos staff. :Thank you and all your staff for the experiences she was given since the first pitch on opening day (2012)."

In recent years, Mary Langston tried to attend as many games as she felt well enough to attend.

“For being that age, it was amazing how she came to a ton of games, always cheering the Blue Wahoos,’’ said Brandon Miller, the Blue Wahoos’ box office and ticket manager. “The warm smile she had… I will always remember that. She was always very welcoming to fans, staff, players, everyone.

“When I got here (2021), everyone just always introduced her to me as Momma Wahoo,” Miller said. “She really enjoyed where her seats were. She wanted to be close to the action. She had a great view of the players, great view of the game.”

Mary Langston was another part of why Blue Wahoos games offer a special experience. She was truly part of the Wahoos Life.

"She will be missed by all who touched who were touched by her spirit," said Michael Langston.

And it will always be that way.