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 Ed BamBam DeBehnke is a passionate darter you should know! He has been
playing darts for almost 20 years and regularly travels to tournaments to compete and challenge himself. He loves the game and plays aggressively. Sure,
he wants to improve, and he wins enough to support his tournament play, but he wants more. He knows what he is capable of, i.e. great darts, and is not
afraid to get out there and work for his share of the prize money. DeBehnke takes his ‘never say die attitude’ with him
to the line for every round of darts he throws and continuously strives to compete with the best of the best. He
never underestimates his opponents whether he is shooting against a pro-darter or the guy down the block. Top this love of the game and winning
attitude off with the personality of just an overall nice guy and behavior of a good sportsman, in the truest sense of the word, and the mix is pure BamBam.
DeBehnke started off playing steel-tip darts and that is his first love. As a
true competitor and a passionate darter, he now regularly competes in the soft-tip arena as well.
DeBehnke was born and raised in Chicago and is lucky enough to live only a
couple of blocks from Di’s Den, one of the greatest dart bars ever. He is happily married with a wife and two children and only has great things to say
about the support that his wife has given him with regard to darts. Though his
son and daughter are a little too young to be frequenting the dart bars, who knows? We just might see the DeBehnke clan someday taking first place in
a mixed-triples event at a tournament!
While I envisioned DeBehnke throwing ton-80s from his crib, his dart career
did not start out exactly quite like that. His wife bought DeBehnke his first dart board for a Christmas gift, complete with a cheap set of brass darts.
And that is how it all began, some twenty years ago. Somehow I do not think DeBehnke, or even his wife, had any idea back then how passionate he
would become about the game of darts or where the game would take him over the years.
Most of us pick up darts at home or in a bar, and then somehow manage to
join a team along the way. DeBehnke went straight from his dartboard at home to a tournament. He found a fella to shoot with and went straight to
one of the Windy City tournaments where he placed in the Top 32...his first time out. He took his money, thought that was lots of fun and did not play
seriously again until the next Windy City tournament two years later. Once again (without having yet played on a team) DeBehnke went to the
tournament where he took Top-32 in a doubles event, pocketed the money and went on his way.
In 1985, DeBehnke joined his first team out of Village Pub in DesPlaines,
Illinois, and yes folks, DeBehnke spent one season as a Brass player (The Windy City Darters rank their players Brass, Nickel and Tungsten, with Tungsten being the best.). He was on a Brass team with 4 women and took
the Brass city championship for Windy City in 1985. As a consummate good sportsman, DeBehnke insists the women on that first team were instrumental
in taking that first city championship.
As for being a teammate or a captain, DeBehnke has been a team captain,
but he prefers concentrating on his game. “Just give me a schedule and a phone number to call if I cannot be there and I will do my best!.”
DeBehnke admits he had some natural talent right from the get-go and that
was just the beginning. He spent another year as a Nickel player and then moved up to Tungsten. He has played for the Southside League (out of Rosa’s, Goal Post and PJ Flaharty’s) as well as for the Windy City darters.
When I asked who has had influence on his dart game and strategy, as well as examples of good sportsmanship, he replied, “KC Mulaney, Bruce
Schaefer, Andy Mac, Danny Pucillo, Bill Washburn (who practiced a lot with DeBehnke and helped him work on his stroke), and Eddie Koz. Eddie was
the best cricket player I knew and taught me much of how to play the game.” Another great influence was his original team captain, Tina Perez, who was
helpful at keeping DeBehnke’s head grounded. “She was a great team captain for my first 2 years, and while not being one of the better lady
shooters out there, she was still one of my best influences. She was a class act!”
KC Mulaney was not only one of the best dart players from the city of
Chicago (who tragically died in his 30s at a North American Open dart Tournament in Las Vegas), but according to DeBehnke (and most people
who were lucky enough to know KC), he was the epitome of a good sport. Many have tried to model themselves after KC as “KC showed others how to
play great darts and how to be a good guy at the same time.” A rare combination indeed.
As for his first Ton-80, DeBehnke clearly remembers it as it was on his wife’s
birthday in 1985 when he was still a brass player. He has lost count over the years, though. As for practice, DeBehnke insists he usually shoots better
without it. He has not thrown a dart at home in a couple of months. His best warm-up routine is to throw 150 bulls and play a few challenging games
before a match or a draw.
The darters that DeBehnke admires most are KC Mulaney, as mentioned
above, Phil Taylor, the 10-time world champion and John Part, the current World Champion. DeBehnke came up against Phil Taylor in a draw once and
was happy to play good darts and take the match. “He is simply the best,” says DeBehnke, who has also competed in both of the PDC Las Vegas
Desert Classic tournaments. If DeBehnke could have any doubles partner in the world he would choose John Part. “I have lots of respect for his game,
and he deserves to be where he is at right now, which is number 1 in the world.”
Speaking of tournament partners, I was curious to know what frustrated
DeBehnke most about a tournament partner. While a lessor sportsman would most likely reply, “when my partner cannot hit anything,” DeBehnke,
again was the consummate sportsman. He went on to explain that he becomes frustrated “when a partner talks about how they are going to win
before they have even thrown a dart.” DeBehnke is smart enough to know that nothing is a given, and the average darter is beatable at any given
moment in time. He recapped a few experiences where he himself was knocked out. But what really frustrates DeBehnke is when a partner fails to
show up without the courtesy of a phone call or any notice. Another pet peeve is watching a player give up on a match before the final dart is thrown.
While on the subject of tournaments, I asked DeBehnke what his least
favorite event at a tournament is. “There is no such thing,” he replied. DeBehnke’s favorite game? He loves cricket as it is “the thinking man’s
game.”
I know DeBehnke plays electronic darts at some of the larger draws in the
Chicago area and tournaments he can get to. I asked his take on the game.
“The strategy is definitely different, and I am still learning this.” He does not
believe in the concept of ‘the board is always right’ as poorly maintained boards do not always register the scores correctly. It is a different game,
with its own merits but DeBehnke prefers steel-tip. Either way DeBehnke insists he “just enjoys the competition.”
It was actually at a tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where DeBehnke
picked up the nickname BamBam. I thought it referred to his deliberate
stroke and delivery of the dart to his target. Nope, that is not it! It turns out
the tournament announcers could not pronounce his last name right and kept butchering it. While shooting with Linda Saloman (DeBehnke’s original
mixed-doubles partner), DeBehnke’s name was called out as DeBamBam – and thus – BamBam was born. Saloman made sure it stuck.
When DeBehnke gets the jitters, which personally I do not think is that often,
he concentrates on his breathing, both behind and at the line. He learned the importance of breathing properly through some firsthand life experiences,
learning to shoot weapons in the army, and while attending Lamaze classes with his wife in preparation for the birth of each of their children. DeBehnke
went on to explain, “Some people do not realize that they are holding their breath for an entire match!” DeBehnke leaned back and gave a hearty laugh
as he continued, “Now that cannot be a good thing, can it? I mean, not breathing for an entire match? You have to realize that by not getting oxygen
, your body and muscles tend to tense up, and for me that is not a good thing.”
What keeps DeBehnke interested in the sport? “For me, it is all about...
Continued...
This complete, in-depth interview with Ed BamBam Debehnke is available to
our print subscribers on pages 26 – 32 of the January/February 2004 print edition.
Not a BEN subscriber yet? Ed BamBam Debehnke is! Click here for info 
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