, inc.

Cincinnati's Most Explosive Ice Hockey Team!




I wish I could say that we have some grand story of consulting with Fans, Marketing Geniuses and Children of all ages in order to come up with our kick-ass name, logo and uniform. But alas, I can't. It was, however, all democratically decided by each member of the team, all ideas put to a vote and unanimously approved.

The Name:


On the same night we originally came up with the concept of our team, we put our heads together to come up with a name and uniform. Everybody threw out ideas: "The Reapers," "The Grim Reapers," "The Outlaws," "The Wrecking Crew," "The Crew," "The Demons," "The Raptors," and from our Metallica fans on the team "Disposable Heroes" and the winner "Damage Incorporated." Almost immediately, "Damage Incorporated" took.

"DAMAGE, inc." is a song in the Heavy Metal Anthem style from Metallica's third album "Master of Puppets" (Track 8). For a hard-nosed, smack-talking, wise-ass, hard-hitting Hockey Team, we thought it was perfect. The following are a few lyrics from the song that show it's appropriateness...

"Dealing out the agony within/ Charging hard and no one's gonna give in/ Living on your knees, conformity?/ Or dying on your feet for honesty/(a team) our bodies work as one/ Bloody but never cry submission/ Following our instinct not a trend/ Go against the grain until the end/...Slamming through, don't fuck with (these) razorback(s)/ Stepping out? You'll feel our Hell on your back/ Blood follows blood and we make sure/ This (game) ain't for you and we're the cure/...Steamroller action crushing all/ Victim is your name and you shall fall/...We chew and spit you out/ We laugh, you scream and shout/ All flee with fear you run/ You'll know just where we come from... DAMAGE INCORPORATED!/ Damage jackals ripping right through you/ Sight and smell of this it gets me goin'/ Know just how to get just what we want/ Tear it from your soul in nightly hunt (games)/ Fuck it all and fucking no regrets/ Never happy endings on these dark sets (rinks)/ All is fair for DAMAGE, inc. you see/ Step a little closer if you please/ (CHORUS:) Blood will fol-low blood/ Dy-ing time is heeeere... DAMAGE INCORPORATED!"

The Uniform:


We knew from the get-go that we wanted our team color to be black, it just fit perfectly with the name. And there were a great many Chicago Blackhawks fans on the team, so we damned near had to wear the Blackhawks third jerseys, all black, as our uniform. However, many of us on the team were fans of other squads and frankly couldn't stand the 'Crack-hawks' uniform. So we looked at other options, like the Phoenix Coyotes Blacks, the Washington Capitals blacks, the Boston Bruins blacks, the Philadelphia Flyers blacks and finally, the Calgary Flames blacks. After careful perusal of all uniforms, we voted to go with the Calgary Flames Third Jerseys as our team uniform. Besides, the whole "Flames" reference went pretty good with the devil-ish nature of the name, anyway.

The Logo:



The logo, referred to by some as "Bob," is another thing that just fit with the whole Flames, Destruction, Bad-ass, DAMAGE, inc. concept. However, a few ideas with skulls and snakes and wrecking balls and back-hoes and mack trucks other various 'mean thangs' were considered. But one night in the locker room before a practice, Goaltender Matt Brinson suddenly yelled out "Hey, why not this for our logo?!" pointing to a grinning devil head he had on his helmet (as he is a huge fan of the New Jersey Devils). The helmet was taken to Koch's Sporting Goods, where the uniforms were to be made, to see if the Devil could be reproduced. Unfortunately, it couldn't, but Kris Koch, manager at Koch's, remembered he had a logo on file somewhere in his archives that looked just like Matt's grinning devil. He found it, we liked it, and "Bob" (pictured at left) now sits squarely on the chest of every DAMAGE, inc. uniform.