Six years ago, the face of the Penguins’ playoff run was not a player. It was this guy:
Ty Avolia rose to internet fame that year as the Penguins used the catch phrase “Buckle Up, Baby,” coined by radio broadcaster Phil Bourque, as their playoff motto. That GIF of the excited tot — the Buckle Up Baby — subsequently found its way onto social media and became a sensation, as fans used it endlessly as a symbol of their own excitement.
The team ended up flaming out in the second round against the New York Rangers, but an enduring meme was born. Ty’s face has never really faded from the the web since. Rather, the GIF has been used even more widely as social posters near and far have discovered it and used it in all kinds of contexts beyond hockey.
All the while, Ty is growing up. As the Penguins set their sights on a pandemic-delayed 2020 playoff run, Ty is 8 years old, still in love with hockey and navigating his unique life as a mini celebrity that many have seen, but few immediately recognize without the baby cheeks.
Ty’s mother, Hilary, told the Post-Gazette that neither of them can remember the moment portrayed in the GIF. It was at a Penguins game earlier in that season, but the family attended several as season ticket holders at the time.
Before Hilary knew it, her son’s face was everywhere. It was, she said candidly, a bit overwhelming at first.
“To see him all over the internet was crazy,” she said. “And how fast it took off? It was probably even before lunchtime that [WTAE-TV] got into contact with me. I come into work at 7 a.m., so from 7 to 5 p.m. it was just in and out. People just blowing up my phone. ... We did this interview [with WTAE] the exact same day.”
Fortunately, that initial surge of attention has subsided in the years since. They’ll still hear from friends when the GIF is used somewhere prominent. There was a mini-stir recently when Steelers lineman Zach Banner used it.
I want to babysit this kid... Even though he’s probably my age by now... pic.twitter.com/8ZfUtKx6kx
— Zach Banner (@ZBNFL) February 17, 2020
For the most part, though, life is fairly normal for the family of three that includes Joe, Ty’s father.
Ty’s love of hockey actually pre-dates his viral fame. His parents said he asked for hockey skates for Christmas a few months earlier. They were surprised to find some in his size as he bounced around the store, playing with a stick and ball.
Now he’s learning the game at the development level. Before the pandemic, he was playing with the Southpointe Rink Rats, based at Printscape Arena at Southpointe in Canonsburg. And he’s had a ball.
This season, his team played during intermission at a Penguins game — he says he wasn’t nervous about that at all — and won a tournament in Niagara Falls. Ty, now a second grader at Fort Cherry Elementary school, said his best skills are stick-handling and scoring, though he looked pretty quick skating around the arena at a recent practice. And he uses his trademark fist pumps as his goal celebration.
Through the pandemic, he’s followed some online workouts and has roller-bladed to keep his legs strong.
His coaches and teammates recently learned that he was the star of the GIF they’ve seen so many times over the years. Hilary said one coach couldn’t believe it when he learned the news and now calls Ty “Buckle Up Baby” as his nickname.
He still goes to Penguins games, though not as many now that he has a busy hockey schedule of his own. His favorite players are Jake Guentzel and Sidney Crosby.
He’s also gotten to know a former Penguin in Tyler Kennedy, whom Ty practices with once a week. Kennedy recently learned Ty’s true identity as well and told Hilary he figured it out because he said Ty gives him the same intense looks during practice that he did in the GIFs, though Hilary suspects someone might have tipped it off.
That’s about as often as his past fame comes up with new acquaintances, though. Hilary said few people recognize him now and there’s never really a natural time to bring it up.
“That’s just not the first thing we talk about when we meet new people,” Hilary said with a chuckle.
The family does not have an overt connection to the team itself, though they’ve met Bourque and chatted with him on occasion. Ty, of course, still loves them and likes their chances to win their third Stanley Cup title of his lifetime.
“They’ve been doing pretty good,” he said.
As for future internet fame, Ty has no plans. When asked if he knew what he’d like to do in a second viral GIF, he simply replied “no” before scampering off with his dad for some post-practice ice cream with his teammates.
Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @fugimaster24.
First Published: June 1, 2020, 12:00 p.m.