Hockey, hecklers and taxidermy: Meet a Middle Georgia emergency goalie

As Bill Yox walked toward the visitor’s locker room during a Macon Mayhem hockey game last week, he heard someone shout a simple phrase.

“Hey 35, you suck!”

Yox thought little of it. The Monticello, Georgia resident had heard plenty of jeers at sporting events before. This one was fairly unoriginal, not to mention the fact that it was aimed at the visiting team, the Roanoke Rail Yard Dawgs. Yox, a Mayhem fan, was not particularly familiar with Roanoke’s uniform numbers, after all.

He heard the fan yell again: “35, you suuuuuuuuck!”

‘Boy,’ Yox thought, ‘I wonder if he’s right. Maybe No. 35 does suck.’

But Yox had forgotten one important thing: he was the one wearing No. 35.

The 65-year-old man from Middle Georgia suited up for Roanoke to play against his beloved Mayhem for two games Friday and Saturday as the emergency backup goalie — and, it turns out, he had forgotten his own uniform number.

“I usually wear No. 70 in my (amateur) hockey league,” Yox said. “Once I realized, I cracked up. I thought, ‘Dude, I’m just the (emergency backup goalie). All I have to do is open and shut a door.’”

No, Yox did not get into the game. Roanoke’s main goalie remained healthy, much to the relief of their emergency backup who could qualify for the senior menu at IHOP. Despite one amusing moment where an equipment malfunction made Yox think he might have to go on the ice, the Rail Yard Dawg’s impromptu elder statesman got the night off.

It was Yox’s first experience as a professional hockey player, and one he sincerely doubts he will ever replicate.

Playing time or not, Yox was fascinated by the experience. A man with no real professional or even collegiate hockey experience got to put on a uniform for a game in the SPHL, a league where players are paid to put their bodies on the line each game.

So how did Bill Yox — an award-winning taxidermist, it turns out, but a relatively inexperienced hockey goalie — end up playing for the opposing team?

It’s kind of a funny story

Yox is originally from Buffalo, New York, right across the border from Ontario. Hockey is a “way of life” for most people there, he said, but a young Yox surprised many by not really dedicating himself to the sport as a child.

“I did not do the hockey route, although I liked hockey. I always followed it, I followed the Buffalo Sabres since 1970 — yes, I’m that old,” Yox said. “My school had a good high school team, too, but I didn’t do any of that. All I did was mess around on ponds or play street hockey.”

After spending his life watching hockey, a new relationship brought Yox to Middle Georgia in 2013. He opened Bill Yox Taxidermy right near Monticello Square, just less than an hour north of Macon. 

At 53, the lifelong fan decided it was finally time to get on the ice and play for real.

“I never thought I’d be able to play because I’d blown out an ACL playing ball hockey, of all things. For a while I couldn’t quite run or walk right,” Yox said. “Somehow I started playing goalie (in Macon). I had to learn a lot because the style had changed. … I had followed it enough that I kinda adapted, but then it was just trial by fire.”

Yox plays most of his hockey with a group at the Macon Coliseum on Thursdays. He’s slowly adjusted to being goalie, especially since one team that picked him did so because “he just looked like a goalie,” he said. Even at 65, Yox is spry and does a decent job in the net.

There are plenty of talented guys playing on Thursdays — Yox even played with Scott Pearson, a former NHL player — but former Mayhem player and coach Caleb “Cam” Cameron is a staple of the group.

“He’s a pretty darn good player, so sometimes I get the better of him and a lot of times he gets it past me,” Yox said, laughing. “Being able to play with him is real fun.”

Luckily for Yox, Cameron got a call from the Roanoke head coach the night Jan. 25 after Yox and friends had finished playing hockey in Columbus: the Rail Yard Dawgs needed a goalie, ASAP. One of their two goaltenders had been called up to the next level.

“I’m convinced they could’ve gotten a college goalie or signed somebody to some type of contract, but Cam told ‘em, ‘I got a guy,’” Yox said. “Cam says, ‘he’s not a guy who’s got visions of grandeur, he’ll just go in and play.’”

So, just like that, the taxidermist from Buffalo got the gig.

A day in the life of a pro

What shocked Yox the most during his brief but memorable stint as an emergency backup goalie in the SPHL was the efficiency and routine of it all.

For starters, Yox had a game up in Sandy Springs at 3 p.m. that Friday. He thought he’d make it with plenty of time but was told he had to rush down to make it for pregame preparations, which were very new to him.

“There’s a lot of cool feelings that come through all at once. As much as I thought I knew about hockey — I knew how fast the puck could get to me, and I knew my way around the ice — what hit me right off the bat was the extreme structure of professional hockey,” Yox said.

First the team had to go to the trainer’s room for warm-up clothes. Then there was a different process for getting uniforms on. Yox was also intrigued by the pregame rituals of the Rail Yard Dawgs, who did everything from riding the exercise bike to juggling rolls of tape.

“Every guy knows exactly what calms them down before a game,” Yox said. “Then there’s the trainer who knows exactly what guys need. The equipment manager knows exactly whose skates to sharpen. It’s so regimented and structured.”

Yox also felt humbled at how kind the Roanoke players were, how they received him with camaraderie. Some of his Mayhem fan friends supported him at the games, making the ordeal all the more fun. Mayhem players joked about wanting Yox in the net so they could score some easy goals.

One funny moment came when Roanoke’s main goalie, Austyn Roudebush, bent down to adjust one of the straps on his goaltender’s equipment. Yox thought just for a moment that Roudebush was hurt and he might actually have to play in the net.

“I was kinda joking that I had to pray for a hangnail,” Yox said of his chances of playing. “Then that happened, and I was scared stiff that I had to go in, but also excited.”

Overall, Yox loved every second of the experience. He thanked Cameron for setting him up and also credited Raymond Smith, the operations director at the Macon Coliseum, with getting him on the ice for a couple nights.

And then there was that heckler. Even if Yox forgot his own number, he’ll never forget his time as a backup goalie against his own favorite team.