Carmen D'Amato is something of a legend among South Philadelphia Mummers brigades. At just 21, he was inducted into the Mummers Hall of Fame and served as captain of the South Philly Vikings for several years. He turned the beleaguered club into a powerhouse team that, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, boasted several first-place finishes in the Fancy Brigade Division, according to a 1990 article in the Philadelphia Daily News.