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August 21, 2007
Earl of Bud & Conehead
P alerts me to the fact that the Earl of Bud and the Conehead, two legends of Buffalo sports, are saluted in today's Buffalo News. These two aren't sports legends in a traditional sense: they never took the field or the ice, never scored a goal or hit a home run. But they did something just as important: they made sure that when someone DID score a goal or hit a home run, you had a cold beer in your hand when it happened.
Simply put, the Earl of Bud was the fuckin man. As a beer guy, his schtick was simple and devestatingly effective: Once a game (Sabres or Bisons; he didn't work Bills games), "Tequila" by The Champs would blast over the loudspeakers, and that was the Earl of Bud's cue. He'd put down his load of beers and hustle over to a railing or the top of the Bisons dugout and proceed to do the Pee-Wee Herman, all while wearing a white tuxedo with long tails and the "Earl of Bud" emblazoned on the back in red script. At the song's conclusion, he'd hop back down as the crowd roared and get back to slanging beers. Of course, as a youngster, it was a hell of a sight to see: balance, rhythm, showmanship. And I'd get to yell "TEQUILA!", even though I didn't really know what that was at the tender age of seven, when I made my first treks to the Aud and what was then known as Pilot Field.
Here's a tux-less Earl of Bud at the Sabres' last game in the Aud:
Anyways, the News tracks down the Earl of Bud today and sheds a little light on the man behind the beer and his whereabouts since splitting town ten years ago. It's a surprisingly juicy story: Turns out his day job was fighting fires with the Buffalo FD (a job he might have lost due to cocaine charges) and that a lot of the other vendors hated on him because he sold so much more beer than they did. Also, he did weddings and bar mitzvahs. Awesome. Money quote:
"No, Earl of Bud has not done anything," he said. "He has been retired a good 10 years.
"I'm doing different things, a different part of life now. But I could never forget that. It was a good part of life, when I was the Earl of Bud."
In comparison, the Conehead's story and steez are a little less compelling - an original Bisons stockholder, he wears a cone on his head whilst dishing out beers at games - but he seems like a good dude and next time I see him, I'm buying some pops off him for sure. You gotta love his dedication:
The Conehead has saturated Girot's identity to the point of his wishing to maintain the character, well, for eternity.
"When I'm buried, I want to be in my Bisons uniform," Girot said. "Everybody coming to my wake wouldn't recognize me if I wasn't dressed appropriately. I wear a suit only to weddings and funerals, but I don't want to wear a suit to my funeral."
As for the cone?
"I guess I won't be buried with it, but yeah, for the service."
Posted by caps at August 21, 2007 10:58 AM