A southern Alberta mom was feeling a bit green around the gills when her family came down to visit last month.
Joanelle Graham of Brooks ended up painting her face green-and-gold when her daughter Pauline and son-in-law TK Kelly came down from Okotoks for Game 1 and 2 of the Brooks Bandits-Okotoks Oilers Alberta Junior Hockey League South Division final March 29-30.
“I am a Bandits fan, but right now I am kind of cheering for both,” Graham said while wearing an Oilers’ jersey at the Pason Centennial Arena during Game 4 of the series April 3. “When my daughter came down last weekend they painted my face for the game in Brooks.”
Seeing a long-time Bandit fan suddenly decked out in Oiler green-and-gold was a jolt to the Brooks brass.
When Brooks Bandits president David Hemsing saw Graham’s face, it was like he had been slammed by one of Oiler Tariq Hammond’s body checks.
“He was shocked,” Graham said. “I told Dave that I still like the Bandits, but this is about family.”
Her Okotoks side of the family, the Kellys, are members of the Oilers Green Army — those overly enthusiastic fans at Pason Centennial Arena who wear hard hats, make-up and cultivate plenty of noise to support their beloved green-and-white. Kind of like the Kiss Army with a hockey edge.
TK drives forklift in High River and was able to arrange his work schedule to give him plenty of time to prepare for the big game on April 3.
“I started putting on my make-up about 4 p.m.,” TK said. “I come up with a different face for every game.”
He has to start early. TK was also applying the make-up for his daughter, who had come down from Calgary for the crucial game.
TK has followed a weird path to becoming a die-hard Oiler fan. He grew up in Camrose — home of the Oilers’ bitter rivals the Kodiaks. He would later live in Brooks for 12 years before moving to Okotoks about eight years ago.
He wasn’t the only newcomer to Okotoks that year. A bunch of 18 to 21-year-old young men played their first year of hockey when the Kellys arrived — the Okotoks Oilers.
TK has been at virtually every Oilers home game since. He has often made trips with his wife, Pauline, to take in a road game. The couple made the romantic trip to Whitecourt, Grande Prairie and Drayton Valley when the Oilers did their northern swing in October – not exactly an exotic getaway.
Pauline and TK met while working at Lakeside Packers in Brooks and she admitted to being a mild Bandits fan while growing up. She started being a much more avid hockey fan when she began dating her future husband.
Although there might be the odd wife out there who wouldn’t want to be seen with a husband whose face looks like a green-and-gold Picasso painting, Pauline more than accepts it.
“I love it,” she said. “I love his passion.”
TK is passionate, not nuts, he said.
“I only paint my face for playoff games,” he explained.
The Army
The Green Army was started four years ago when a group of fans started donning Oilers’ colours and joining forces to support the team.
The odd time the army will break out into song, which sounds eerily similar to what one might here at a soccer game.
The army can break out into a rousing rendition of “Oilers, Oilers, Oilers, Oilers” sung to the soccer chant of “Ole, Ole, Ole,” before the end of the buzzer.
Army spokesman Simon Halls, who hails from across the pond, said the army wanted to bring some of that British football fanaticism to Okotoks.
However, it doesn’t come with some of the rough stuff that has been affiliated with European football games.
The code is keep it clean – if you can’t say it in The Little Riggers Corner where the kids hang out, don’t say it at all.
The Army has evolved into carrying its own merchandise – Green Army shirts, hard hats, scarves and other gear are available at the Centennial Arena during Oiler games.
It has also earned the admiration of the team’s coach.
Oilers coach/GM James Poole has publicly commented on how important the army’s support, both at home and away, is for his young squad.
The support is reciprocated.
Hall said after initially having mixed feelings about Poole’s hiring three years ago, the army is “110-per cent behind is (contract) extension.”
For more information about the Green Army go to facebook and look up Okotoks Oilers Fans.
TK Kelly gets a peck on the cheek from his wife, Pauline Kelly and his mother-in-law, xxxxxx during Game 4 of the Okotoks Oilers-Brooks Bandits playoff game on April 3 at the Pason Centennial Arena. Pauline and TK met in Brooks and were avid Bandits fans before moving to Okotoks seven years ago.
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