A West Philly football star introduced water ice to Texas, and offers pickles as a topping

Bruce Mapp drove nearly every day as a teenager from his home in West Philadelphia to the water ice stand in Upper Darby, a quick trek to reach an oasis during those hot summers.

“It was just a few minutes away,” Mapp said. “Sometimes, we’d even go twice.”

Mapp, like most Philly kids, grew up on water ice and nothing compared to George’s on Marshall Road. The stand’s strawberry lemonade flavor was an essential taste of summer. When Mapp, 31, moved a few years ago to Texas, he couldn’t believe that water ice didn’t exist there.

“I was like, ‘Man, I can’t live my whole life here in Dallas with no water ice,’” Mapp said.

He called home, asked his sister how to make water ice, and got to work. Mapp ate the treat every day back in Philly but never thought about the ingredients. Now he was making his own. He rented a stand at a flag football tournament, brought his water ice, and introduced a taste of Philly to Dallas.

“A lot of people were just buying it because they supported me,” said Mapp, who plays flag football for the U.S national team. “But once they tried it, you know how water ice is, it’s addicting.”

Mapp’s tent at that flag football tournament grew into his own company: So Icy. He owns a food truck that travels around Dallas and two water ice stands — just like the one he used to frequent — that are open seven days a week from April to October. Water ice has found a home in Texas, providing the same summery escape that George’s does back home. But there’s one major difference: Mapp will put pickles on your water ice.

“It sounds awful,” Mapp said. “But it sells.”

Mapp was a football star at West Catholic before going to college at Coastal Carolina, where he earned an MBA and a spot in the school’s Hall of Fame as a record-setting wide receiver. Unable to crack the NFL, Mapp was asked by some friends in Philly to join their flag football squad in August 2018.

“They were like, ‘You’re not doing anything else,’” Mapp said.

They had a point. It was just a way to fill his weekends, but flag football soon became a passion. Mapp moved to Dallas in December 2018, found a new flag league, and then learned that there was a U.S. national flag football team.

“I was surprised just like you were,” Mapp said. “You think of flag football as a recreational sport or an intramural sport in college or something as a starter for your kids to do before they transition to tackle. You don’t think there’s a whole adult world out there playing flag football at a high level and on a national team. The first thing I did was go to Google.”

Mapp, the national team’s leading receiver, has since won three gold medals after the U.S. team cruised last month to win the Flag Football World Championships in Finland. Mapp’s employees ran the water ice stands while he was in Europe and he woke up at 3 a.m. each day to see the transactions back in Dallas.

Six years ago, flag football was something to do on the weekends. Now it has taken him around the world.

“If anybody knows anything about Philly, you wouldn’t expect to see that,” Mapp said. “I went to Israel. I went to Finland. The only trip I went to growing up was to Atlantic City.”

» READ MORE: Flag football in the Olympics? Team USA’s gold medal showing at the World Games had a Philly influence

The sport will debut at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles but it seems like Mapp’s place on the team could be taken by NFL stars. Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, and Tyreek Hill have expressed interest in playing for Team USA, but first a deal would likely have to be struck between the league and the players union.

But Mapp and his teammates are holding out hope that they’ll be the ones representing the U.S. Darrell Doucette, the team’s quarterback, said he’s better than Mahomes and said it was disrespectful that NFL players could take their place. Maybe they won’t.

“We basically helped build up the hype to get it to this point,” Mapp said. “We’ll see what happens in 2028.”

Mapp bought his food truck during the pandemic and started researching events around the Dallas area where he could sell his water ice. He hustled, traveling all over to spread the good news about Philly’s favorite treat. The work paid off and water ice caught on. First, Texans had to learn how to say it.

“I call it wooder ice and everyone looks at me like, ‘What’s that?” Mapp said. “They call it all kinds of names. They’re like, ‘Let met get a So Icy.’ In my head, I’m like, ‘That’s the name of the company.’ Then they’re like, ‘Let me get a snow cone.’ It’s different from a snow cone, but I got you.”

Mapp opened his first stand last summer in downtown Dallas and soon received a message from a social-media influencer. She wanted to post an Instagram review about Mapp’s spot. Sure, he said.

“I got lucky,” Mapp said. “Two days later, I had 100 people in line before we even opened up. Someone said they traveled from Mississippi to try it. It was unbelievable.”

Mapp opened a second stand — which has murals of Jason Kelce and Jalen Hurts painted on the walls next to portraits of Cowboys stars — this summer in a Dallas suburb. Business is booming. He makes 14 flavors, sells soft pretzels, and even cooks cheesesteaks in the food truck that is rented for events.

“I have an MBA so I had some type of idea, but the more I think about it, I knew nothing. Actually doing it was crazy,” said Mapp, who had to learn about permits and taxes while making sure his employees were paid. “The thing that hit me like, ‘You’re really a business owner’ was when someone asked me to sign a letter that said they make this much every two weeks so they can get an apartment. I was like, ‘That’s crazy.’”

The pickles came about last year when a friend told him it would work as a topping. Mapp already broke Philly tradition by offering Tajin to cater to a new audience. Pickles? That was too far.

“He was in my ear about it,” Mapp said. “I said, ‘Bro, I’m never doing that.’ He said, ‘Trust me.’”

Mapp relented, offered sliced pickles, and reaped the rewards.

“I sell my water ice for $5 and charge $1 for toppings,” Mapp said. “It turns a $5 water ice into $8 real quick. It’s crazy. It sounds awful, but they crave it.”

Mapp no longer has to imagine life without water ice as he brought a slice of home to Texas. So Icy even sells strawberry lemonade, the water ice flavor that still brings back memories of hanging with friends at that stand in Upper Darby and cooling off during a hot summer day. But who makes it better?

“In Dallas, I do,” Mapp said. “George’s is king. It’s like meeting your favorite wide receiver growing up and now they’re mentioning you as their favorite receiver.”