Quick-Fire Quips is a questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the State of Alabama! In this episode, Alabama Public Radio host Baillee Majors talks with David Koonce, Executive Vice President of the Birmingham Bulls minor pro hockey team.
Baillee: Hey, David!
David: Hi, Baillee. How are you?
Baillee: Hey, I'm doing great. Happy to have you on. So, for people who are unfamiliar, what can you tell me about the Bulls?
David: The original team came in 1976 through the WHA (World Hockey Association), which ended up merging with the NHL (National Hockey League) in the early '80s. The Bulls were a team that wasn't chosen to merge into the NHL, so it kind of went away for some years.
Then it returned in 1992 and was here until 2001, at which point the team moved to New Jersey. There was another break until this current version came back in 2017. So, we've been back with the same team name, same logo, and everything since 2017. This is the third version of the Birmingham Bulls.
Baillee: Yeah, so like a third homecoming—but hopefully here to stay, right?
David: Hopefully here to stay. We've been here longer than the other two versions, so we're excited about that!
Baillee: That counts for something! All right. Well, now that introductions are done, let's get you warmed up to answer the questionnaire. To do that, I want you to say "Quick-Fire Quips" three times fast.
David: Quick-Fire Quips, Quick-Fire Quips, Quick-Fire Quips.
Baillee: Okay, very nice. I love the effort. Here is the first question: What comes to mind when you hear "Alabama"?
David: College football. Alabama is my team. I went to school down there. Met my wife down there. Season ticket holder down there. You kind of get indoctrinated into it when you're born, right? You don't really get to pick.
Baillee: What is a hidden gem in the Pelham area that more people should know about?
David: Well, Pelham has kind of been coined "Hockey Town, Alabama." There's such a new life for hockey here—kids wanting to skate and learn how to play at the Pelham Civic Complex.
There are 300 or 400 kids in this program growing up playing hockey. When we tell people we have hockey in Birmingham, they usually say, "Man, that's crazy. I had no idea."
Baillee: What is a bad stereotype or something that people get wrong about Alabama?
David: The guys that play on our team—0% of them are from Alabama, and less than 1% are from the South. When they get here, they say, "Wow, I thought y'all had dirt roads and we were going to be out in the country." It’s just that stereotype that we’re way down south and primitive.
We have about 60% of the team from Canada. We have two twin brothers from Belarus. We've had a player from Estonia and some Russian guys. There are guys from all over the world who probably couldn't find Alabama on a map, but they come down here, play hockey, and love it. They always say, "I love playing here because everybody's nice, the food's great and I can play golf in November."
Baillee: That's so funny! Well, what's the one thing you wish more people knew about when it comes to hockey?
David: I just wish they knew that we were here.... We've been here for nine years. Our games are built so you don't have to know anything about the rules; it's just fun to come to.
It's fast—it’s not like a baseball game where you’re there for four hours. It’s quick and very entertaining. We have 29 home games, so there are many opportunities to come out.
Baillee: In baseball, you have the seventh-inning stretch. Is there an equivalent in hockey?
David: There are interesting traditions in hockey. Every year we do something called the "Teddy Bear Toss." All the teams across the world do this, usually before Christmas. In Birmingham, we attach our promotion to the Salvation Army.
Fans bring a stuffed animal to the game, and when the team scores their first goal, they toss those stuffed animals onto the ice. We stop the game and collect them all to be donated. This year we had about 1,600 teddy bears!
Another thing we do is let the fans come out on the ice after the game to skate with the team. Our players come out and help people skate, keep them from falling. They'll sign autographs.
Baillee: How do you think hockey fandoms are different from, football fans? Football fans have a reputation for being very enthusiastic—I wouldn't say obnoxious, but very loud. Are hockey fans like that too?
David: They 100% are, and they take it personally! We have a section in our arena—Section 108—and they have named themselves "Section 1-0-Hate."
They sit right behind the goal we attack twice during the game. These fans will learn about the opposing goalie—where he's from, what his girlfriend's name is—and they literally yell at the guy the entire game. If you've got your kids with you, we're not going to put you in that section!
There's also a specific language; it took me a couple of months to figure out that when they talk about "flow," they mean a haircut, and they call their sticks "twigs." It's fun to hear fans with West Alabama accents using Canadian hockey slang.
Baillee: So, what can you tell me about Toro the Bull? What's s his story?
David: He originally came from the 70s team... The original owner of the team, his name is John Bassett. He bought that team from the owner of a team called the Toronto Toros, and he bought that team and brought it to Birmingham. He thought that there could be hockey in the South. So, when they had their jerseys the first year, they still had "Toros" on the sleeves, but he renamed the team the Bulls.
He changed it to the Bulls, and that team, the Toronto Toros—when that team came here, they got replaced by the Toronto Maple Leafs. So, when the team came down here, they kept that Toro name and gave it to the mascot.
The original Toro was blue because the team's colors were blue and red. So, we obviously have updated it since we've changed to black and red, but we have a game every year where we kind of bring back some of that old, like, 70s stuff. And the original Toro still lives in Birmingham, and he still comes out to the game and wears that original blue suit to the game.
Baillee: Oh, that's wild-—it's kind of like a smart marketing move.
David: Another interesting fun fact for people in Alabama that'll get this is when John Bassett, the original owner, brought the team to Birmingham, he needed to have a broadcaster for the games. So, he brought one of his friends from New York here to call the game. Moved him to Birmingham, and that guy's name was Eli Gold.
Baillee: Oh, wow! How cool.
David: [He] called NASCAR for 40 years. And obviously, Alabama football and basketball legend. So, without the Birmingham Bulls, Eli Gold does not do NASCAR, because he came down here to do hockey, and he called our games for a while.
Baillee: Some really cool Alabama history there and should be part of trivia night! With the Bulls, [are] there any specific teams that are the big rivalry?
David: Our biggest rivalry is the Huntsville Havoc, which is right up the road, and that team was our rival in the '90s, so when we came back, they still existed in the league.
We actually have like a really fun rivalry with them. We call it the Battle for Bama, and we have like a 40-pound hammer that looks like Thor's hammer, and it's the yellow hammer. Every time we play each other, whoever wins that game takes that hammer back to their arena.
We play about nine times a year. So it's always kind of a fun thing at the end of the game, especially if you take the hammer from that team right in their own arena. It's always an entertaining thing, and it gets people fired up.
Baillee: I read online that you're also no stranger to showbiz, that you once appeared on the TV show One Tree Hill in 2007. What was that like?
David: So, before I got into the hockey business, I was in the music business, and I played in a band (bass for rock band Within Reason). We appeared on One Tree Hill. That whole process was interesting. They brought us in to play the prom episode of that show.
I didn't know anything about it. We were just like, "Yeah, definitely. We're gonna go do some TV." Then we learned very quickly about that show was a huge thing!
Baillee: Yeah, kind of a big deal, yeah!
David: We did that in 2007. I played music until 2017. We came off the road and took a break because we'd been touring for like three years, and the Bulls had just come back that fall. And I started going to games.
I kept thinking, "You know what? I could probably work here." So, they got me an interview with a guy named Art Clarkson, who owned the team, who brought the Birmingham Barons here in the '80s, and he hired me the day after the first season ended. Eight seasons later, I'm still there.
Baillee: Do you have any superstitions or irrational fears?
David: Not anymore. I kind of bought into a little bit of that when I started. I think I had the same pair of shoes I would wear until we lost.
One thing I do still do, every year I buy a new pair of shoes that I work in at the game, and that's the pair that's for the season. This year, we have a player on our team (MacGregor Sinclair, Player #39) that customizes his own shoes, and he does it for the players. It's really cool.
He made me a pair this year. So, that's my pair... A special pair of Jordans. [He] got a sewing machine out and did all this crazy stuff to them.
Baillee: Oh, wow! That's so cool. Okay, next question. Tell me something on your bucket list?
David: I want to knock out every championship game in person of all the sports that I like. So, Super Bowl, NBA Championships, National Championships. I want to be in the building for all of those things. It's like my biggest bucket list. The only one that I've really done is the Indy 500.
Especially being in the sports business, it's like one thing to watch it on TV and see something happen; it's another thing to like be in the building and feel it and hear it and smell it and all of that. So that's kind of where that comes from for me.
Baillee: Who was your childhood hero?
David: Gosh, in sports, it was Dale Murphy, who played for the Atlanta Braves, who deserves to be in the Hall of Fame—if we're gonna get into it.
When I got to be a teenager, it started turning into like, some music people like Gregg Allman or Eddie Vedder... I can't go without saying the person who, I've got a picture of him on my wall in my office right now, is Michael Jordan.
Baillee: What is your favorite getaway spot in Alabama?
David: Favorite getaway spot in Alabama is probably going to be the Gulf Coast somewhere. My dad grew up in Gulf Shores, so we're kind of tied there. What's funny is, like, when trying to explain to Canadians that Alabama has a beach, they just can't put their head around that.
Baillee: Here is the last question. What does Alabama need?
David: I'm not trying to get on the political realm of anything—but a little bit more open-mindedness of the ever-evolving Planet Earth that we live on... Um, I feel like the weather needs to get better.
Baillee: I wish!
David: Yeah, if we can figure out the weather, that would be cool!
Baillee: That's it for today's Quick-Fire Quips, a speedy questionnaire where we get to know people who stand out in the state of Alabama. That was David Koonce, Executive Vice President of the Birmingham Bulls minor pro hockey team. I'm your host, Baillee Majors. Find us at APR.org for more Quick-Fire Quips.
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