For some people, a sport is just a simple pastime to enjoy after a hard day’s work, or with the family as a bonding experience. For others, watching sports and immersing oneself in the world of sports is a passion. One that can include collecting authentic jerseys and other memorabilia. But for a select few, it’s the recreation of many game day experiences that these diehard fans crave.
FamousGoalHorns (who asked not to be named) is a high school student who lives Vancouver, British Columbia. Like so many others, FGH fell in love with the sport of hockey—and who can blame him? From monstrous hits, the ever-so-pleasing sounds of the puck hitting a player’s stick, to even the graceful elegance of 10 players moving around on shimmering ice, it is all so captivating. Even so, FGH isn’t your average hockey fan. In fact, he isn’t even your average Canadian hockey fan—he’s actually not a native Canadian at all. His love for the sport was not inherited like many Canadians. No, he was exposed to the sport only after he had moved to Canada.
Seoul, South Korea is the place that FGH was born, but he immigrated to Canada in 2008, where he was quickly sucked into the icy world of hockey.
“I remember turning on the TV one day and seeing a game of hockey being played,” FGH said. “The fast-paced action of the sport compelled me… I had never seen such an entertaining sport as much as hockey [was].”
It was the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs that piqued FGH’s interest in hockey. That year, the Vancouver Canucks won a franchise record 54 games in the regular season, before ultimately losing game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
With the love for hockey cemented with him, another love came with it. The love for the one thing that really separated hockey from other sports: the goal horn.
For those unaware, every team in the National Hockey league utilizes a goal horn. These horns include everything from ship horns to train horns, and even sirens. But what makes the horns really stand out is that these horns (with the exception of three teams) are real and inside the arena, providing a deafening blast when the home team scores a goal.
“Goal horns show the emotion of the atmosphere [in an arena],” FGH said. “After the horn, a song is played, carving an identity a team. Goal horns make hockey more exciting.”
His love of goal horns sent him down the path of creation, which wasn’t surprising as he had learned to play multiple instruments when he was younger. At the age of 14, FGH created his YouTube channel FamousGoalHorns. A channel that is dedicated to the recreation of NHL goal horns down to their minute details. It is a channel that has grown in just three short years and now sits at well over 17,300 subscribers.
“When I started paying attention to goal horns, I noticed that almost every team had different notes for their horns. I subscribed to numerous YouTube channels that uploaded goal horn videos and was inspired to make videos myself. I downloaded Audacity and was fascinated by the process of making these horns.”
For the past three years, he has uploaded videos of NHL goal horns for every single team, updating the songs and numbers of blasts whenever the teams change them. Similarly, for every special event that takes place: whether that be the Winter Classics, Stadium Series, etc., FGH is out there uploading a new video for his followers.
With the growth of his channel, so too has the popularity of goal horns, and the community that has invested its time into the spectacle. Teams like the Vegas Golden Knights switched between multiple goal horns in their inaugural season, listening to fan feedback before settling down to install a Kahlenberg KPH-130, the same type of ship horn the Colorado Avalanche use.
“[The goal horn] community has influenced NHL teams, DJs and even EA Sports regarding horns and celebrations,” FGH said. “I hope the goal horn community grows into something much bigger.”
Of course, FGH isn’t the only goal horn creator out there. Alex Goyette, who is a current student and graphic designer for the athletic programs at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut creates goal horns for his channel as well. His channel goes by N2B Goal Horns.
What started as Goyette making graphics for FGH’s videos, eventually turned into Goyette making his own videos, which includes MLB horns and songs, as well as minor league and some college hockey teams.
In Goyettes’ eyes, the split has been beneficial for both he and FGH.
“It’s not really a rivalry since we’re friends and it’s really mutually beneficial for both of our channels to exist,” Goyette said. “It’s kind of like a really small scale Jake and Logan Paul rivalry—it drives traffic to both channels.”
Goyettes’ and FGH’s friendship has become a testament to how close together the goal horn community can be. Rivals on YouTube, yet friends away from the screen.
But as a senior in high school, FGH has become very familiar with the task of managing an education and managing the expectations of thousands of subscribers. Even so, he has always been up to the task of managing both personal life, and his life on YouTube.
“I have a life,” FGH stated, bluntly. “Whether it consists of doing homework or doing extracurricular activities. Some days, I just do not have the any time to work on these videos… [because] school is my first priority.”
Still, he notes that hockey has been a sport that has changed his life, and his creations are something that he takes pride in with each and every upload.
“Hockey is not a sport—it’s a way of life. Goal horns, too are not just tools used used to signal a goal—they showcase the hard work I put into them, including the animations I have to make for each individual video,” he said.
Yet, even with the hardships of managing school, applying for universities, and creating goal horns, FGH has continued to create his videos. FGH mentioned that as he enters post-secondary school, the frequency of his videos may drop, the passion and the dedication remains.
“I probably will not have that much time to work on these videos anymore,” he admitted. “However, I will try my best to bring my subscribers the best content that they deserve. Because I love making goal horns and communicating with the hockey community.”
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