Maybe you didn’t know him as David or Mr. Spence, but if you followed professional hockey and baseball in Binghamton over the last several decades, you likely knew of him.
He was the guy smacking spoons, playing harmonica and yodeling, one of the most recognizable sports fans in the area.
Binghamton’s David Spence died Wednesday of natural causes at the age of 95.
His legacy will live on.
“Everybody in Broome County loved my dad, he was quite popular,” Melody Correll said. “I think Broome County will miss him. He was awesome.”
He is survived by his wife, Sally, daughters Correll and Sue Fanning, two grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Spence grew up in Oquaga, moved to Johnson City and settled on Binghamton’s East side.
He worked for Endicott-Johnson Shoes and Canron Construction.
Learning spoons, yodeling
Correll said her father wasn’t a hockey fan until she became a Whalerette in the early-1980s. He became a season-ticket holder in 1982 and that continued until a couple seasons ago, when walking became difficult for him.
He learned to yodel by listening to country music singers. Correll said her father taught himself to play the spoons.
“He was an entertainer,” Correll said. “He liked to entertain anywhere and everywhere. At baseball games during the seventh-inning stretch, he’d yodel, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” They’d play John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” and he’d play the spoons. He’d yodel when we wanted a double play when the other team had a runner on first.”
Spence was named the Binghamton Mets Fan of the Year in 2007.
B-Devils Executive Vice President of Operations Tom Mitchell recalled Spence’s pre-game ritual.
“He’d head down by the dressing room door where guys come out and go on the ice and as they would come out, he’d yodel,” said Mitchell, a front-office fixture in Binghamton hockey since the mid-1980s. “That was one of the things he’d do each night and I’m sure the players enjoyed it. It helped get them pumped up a little bit. He did that all the time.”
Some fans leave a lasting impression and Mitchell said Spence was among them.
“He just added so much, kind of like Hans Petersen, The Chicken Man who was with us for so many years,” Mitchell said. “Dave added a lot to that environment every night. He did it with the Rumble Ponies as well.”
Taking it on the road
Spence was a member of the B-Devils’ booster club for many years and sometimes that meant traveling to road games.
“People who belonged to other booster clubs would say, ‘Is David here tonight? Will he play his harmonica?’” B-Devils booster club president Theresa Prozeralik said. “We’d go to booster club conventions at different cities in the AHL and they’d all go up and ask him, ‘Did you bring your spoons? Did you bring your harmonica? He would sit out in the lobby and he would play for people. That’s how they knew him.”
Prozeralik added at road games, Spence would find the visiting team’s dressing room and yodel the squad onto the ice, just like home games.
“Everybody just loved seeing him,” Prozeralik aid. “He was pleasant to everybody. It was an honor to know him and be a friend.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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Binghamton's Spence left lasting impression on area sports landscape - Pressconnects
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