“I never really thought it was going to take off. It was just supposed to be a quick little project that ended up turning into kind of like marketing gold for the organization. Then they asked me to do the bear chant on the ice before the game would start. The whole crowd would go crazy. I basically just wore a Hershey jersey, wore a foam puck on his head. It was one of those things that became cool. During my first two seasons in St Louis, the Bears went to the finals twice in a row. The team reached out and said, ‘Hey, we need to have Puckhead come back out.”
From On the Football Field to Behind the Camera
Buford attending Concord University in Athens, WV, to play NCAA Division II football and major in computer engineering. An illness forced him to return home to Virginia for what was planned to be just one semester. As it happened, LB got a part-time job in video production at nearby Hampton University, the only HBCU (historically Black college and university) with its own television truck. He loved the job and Hampton loved his knowledge of the sports allowing him to provide “ double-duty” generating both footage for game coverage and video clips for the football and basketball coaching staffs. Rather than continue his athletic career at Concord, he switched his sports career path to video production, which led him to his present role engineering the entertainment experience for Kraken fans.
His late sister-in-law, while dating a young man who landed an internship at Hersheypark, was the one who informed LB about the Hershey Bears job opening. The staff was expanding because the team would be playing in then-brand new GIANT Center, which remains the AHL team’s home venue. Others hired on all had connections to Hersheypark, but LB’s approach reveals his tenacity even if he is a gentle-mannered husband to high school sweetheart Ayisha and father of three daughters, Yazmyne, Yelaina and Yanna.
“She called me when I was in the middle of we were getting ready to travel to film a Hampton game,” said Buford. “She said, ‘Hey, not sure if you would ever consider doing another sport outside of football or basketball, but in Hershey, they have hockey. Have you ever heard of hockey?” I told her I had seen some highlights on ESPN and [former Colorado star] Peter Forsberg was a player I followed.”
Buford decided to apply: “I will say I hounded Vikki Hultquist [now a VP for Hersheypark] a little bit,” said Buford, matter-of-fact. “I think she liked my persistence. She did say to me that I was a likable person from the interview standpoint. When I got to Hershey and into the [video production] room, she elevated me to manager of our production group. She liked how I am with people, down to earth.”
Buford remembers not seeing “a lot of individuals like me” or even that many women holding positions with the team and/or the Hersheypark amusement park/entertainment group: “The coolest thing for me was when Paul Jerrad, a former Hershey player, returned as an assistant coach when I was there [Jerrad died in 2023 after a long battle with cancer; he went to be an assistant with three different NHL teams, Colorado, Dallas, and Calgary and was on the NCAA Division I Nebraska-Omaha staff when he passed away].”
Gauging Personal and League Progress
Buford went on to game entertainment roles with St. Louis [he cold-called about internships and his soon-to-be future boss told him about a new position that “he would perfect for”] and Arizona [his wife was a primary caregiver for a sister, prompting LB to move to Arizona to be with his wife and girls full-time]. When a recruiting firm called about the Kraken job, he applied and said it was about six weeks before he heard back that the CEO [Tod Leiweke] wanted to talk with him.
Self-effacing as always, Buford explained he’s supposedly the computer engineering/tech guy but he couldn’t get the video conference to work right away. He called 15 minutes, dreading his first impression would eliminate his chances.
“I finally got on the call and Tod said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Everything's okay,’ Buford said. “I sensed Tod's calm demeanor right then and there. Our call was supposed to be 30 minutes. We ended up staying on that call for over an hour. We had a conversation that made me feel like this was a place where I needed to work. This franchise was going to be doing it differently.”
Buford said “around 2018” he started to see a few more people of color as colleagues, including “a few more Latinos” with the Coyotes franchise (now relocated to Utah) and seeing more women at the league offices and at NHL-wide club meetings. Like all of us working for the Kraken, Climate Pledge Arena, and One Roof Foundation, he deeply appreciates the organizations’ leadership in diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What Does Motivate Him...
The Kraken vice president is involved in all aspects of the team’s entertainment efforts with keen emphasis on game night presentation. When quizzed about his job by, say, a neighbor or school parent, the “short answer” is “I hope when you come to a game to entertain you.”
If there is a follow-up question, he replies, “I'm part of the group that helps entertain when you come to the game. The lights, the sound, your host, your public address announcer, the mascot, the individuals cleaning the ice [during TV timeouts] ... I'm part of that group that helps keep you entertained, keeps the game moving ... I sometimes go with a shorter version: I'm part of the group that does everything, minus playing on the ice.
Buford has been at it from Game 1, when defenseman Vince Dunn rocked the house with a first-ever goal and the Kraken entertainment group was still testing all sorts of equipment in a frenetic opening week in which both Foo Fighters and Coldplay (the night before the hockey opener) placed demands on the lighting and sound systems and more.
“What motivates me every day is seeing where we came from – season one was tough for a variety of reasons – to see where we are now,” said Buford. “Every game day, I'm more and more proud to work with my colleagues. We made the right call on a lot of these folks. They're the ones who help make us better every day. To be able to work with them, it brings me joy ... that's what I'm most excited about, seeing how individuals have succeeded, and how they've been able to handle adversity at times. Because starting a franchise is hard, just working in sports in general, it's not your typical nine-to-five hours. The grind is very hard, very true, to see the growth of people on our team has been really cool to witness.”
Oh, and about that thick binder recounting high school glory days? Buford flashes a fast and honest grin.
“It’s a funny story,” he said, his whole face alight now. “Just a few weeks ago, my good friend and I were chatting with each other through Facebook. She said, “One of these days, I'm going up in the attic and I'm going to get that binder.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that'd be cool because my wife and daughters, they don’t believe I actually did that stuff.”
