Adrenaline Challenge Coins’ Kevin Tuohy with LA Kings’ Luc Robitaille with a special coin developed to support Robitaille’s charity Echoes of Hope.

This week’s TDQ Q&A is with Adrenaline Challenge Coins founder Kevin Tuohy. Kevin spoke with us about the tradition of challenge coins, how he got into the Air Force and into firefighting and about his company. Here is this week’s TDQ Q&A with Kevin Tuohy:

The Daily Quarterly: How did you find yourself in the Air Force?

Kevin Tuohy: I wanted to be a firefighter and at age 19 it was almost impossible to get a firefighter job with a municipal fire department, but the Air Force would guarantee me the training and the job…so I enlisted.

TDQ: What made you want to be a firefighter?

KT: So many things about the job appealed to me…the excitement, the challenges, the camaraderie, the complete lack of monotony. I was lucky enough to do the job for 34 years and loved every day of going to work…who gets to say that?

TDQ: Who are your influences?

KT: That’s a tough one, but I would have to say my family. My mom, brother, sister, wife and son all influence me in one way or another…they are all amazing people in their own ways. I’m not really influenced by public figures or celebrities…how can you be truly influenced by somebody you don’t truly know.

Kevin Tuohy loves two things: Fighting fires and making challenge coins.

TDQ: What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten?

KT: Find a job that you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.

TDQ: What is the worst advice you’ve ever gotten?

KT: If you want to be happy for the rest of your life, from a personal point of view, find an ugly girl to marry you…horrible advice from a song lyric…didn’t follow that one!!

TDQ: Tell us about AdrenalineChallengeCoins.com…

KT: I started Adrenaline Challenge Coins about 6 years ago. I fell in love with the history and tradition of challenge coins and wanted to provide quality coins at the best possible price. It started when another member of my fire department who had been making St. Patrick’s Day challenge coins for our department decided he no longer wanted to get them made. I asked him if he would mind if I took over that tradition for our department because I didn’t want to see it fade away. After having a couple made with other companies I thought there had to be a better way. We started making our own, and pretty soon, I had friends from other fire departments asking me to make coins for them. Word of mouth continued until this hobby became a business. We have built a strong business within the traditional realms of the military, police and fire departments, but have also expanded this tradition to schools, sports, businesses and more. We have obtained licensing to make challenge coins for all the teams of the National Hockey League and are looking to expand into more big sporting areas.

Challenge Coins can support a cause, commemorate an event, or act as a daily reminder of something you care about. They also make for a fun game that might get you a free drink.

TDQ: For those who don’t know, what are “challenge coins?”

KT: There are several stories available on the internet, but the most dominant and widely accepted story traces the roots of the challenge coin to World War I. As the story goes, a young American pilot had his company insignia made into medallions for all of the pilots in the company. He placed the medallions in leather pouches with leather straps and gave them to all of the pilots to wear around their necks. One of the pilots was later shot down behind German lines and taken prisoner. The Germans took his uniform and ID, but not the leather pouch around his neck. Shortly thereafter, during the confusion of an artillery battle, the pilot escaped his captors and fled into France. At the same time, the French had been warned to beware of German spies posing as escaped American prisoners. A French patrol came upon the pilot and took him prisoner, thinking he was one of the German spies they had been warned about. The French actually scheduled the pilot to be executed as a spy. The pilot had nothing to show he was an American except for the medallion around his neck. One of the French captors recognized the insignia as an American logo and convinced the others to stall the execution long enough to look into his identity. Upon confirming that the young pilot was indeed an American, his execution was cancelled and he was returned to his unit. After telling the story to his fellow pilots, it became commonplace for them to challenge each other to see if they were carrying their medallions. Anyone challenged and caught not carrying his medallion would have to buy drinks for the challengers. Now almost all members of the military, police and fire departments own at least one challenge coin, with many collecting a large numbers of coins. Every current member of any branch of the U.S. Military has been presented with one or more coins. Every U.S. President since Bill Clinton has had their own challenge coins made for very special presentations. Most ranking officers in the military, police and fire have their own coins for presentation. They are presented for jobs well done, to show membership, friendship, allegiance, etc. Anybody who owns a challenge coin can be challenged “anyplace, anytime,” with most challenges occurring in restaurants or bars. Anybody caught without their coin must buy a round for the group, but if everybody has their coin then the challenger must buy the round.

There are several listings on the internet that can tell you all about challenge coin rules and etiquette…best to learn these the moment you receive your first coin. The cost of a challenge coin is much less than the cost of a round of drinks!! I was at an NHL event with the challenge coins and had a guy come up to me and tell me his son was in the U.S. Marines and he was pretty sure his son had never heard of challenge coins. I asked if his son was current active duty and if he could reach his son, he answered yes to both. I set a $100 dollar bill on the table and told him to call his son, and that if he had not heard of challenge coins then the bill was his. He walked a few steps away and got on the phone…he returned in a couple of minutes, sheepishly pushed the $100 dollar bill back towards me and said, “My son has many challenge coins, and wanted to know if I could get him a Chicago Blackhawks coin from you.” Another gentleman at the same event told me, “When I walked by earlier and saw the coins I thought they were really nice…then I heard the story…now I think they’re f***ing awesome, I gotta have one!”

TDQ: You recently made challenge coins for LA Kings’ player Luc Robitaille and his charity, Echoes of Hope. Do you have other NHL players lined up? What about other celebrities or athletes?

KT: Luc is the only NHL player we have currently made a personal coin for, although many NHL players have the challenge coin of their team, which are available at www.NHLChallengeCoins.com. Some of these players include Teemu Selanne, Scott Niedermayer, Grant Fuhr, Luc Robitaille, Rob Blake and more. Actress Alyssa Milano owns a Los Angeles Kings challenge coin…she’s a big fan of the team.

TDQ: Where do you see yourself and Adrenaline Challenge Coins in five years?

KT: Our bread and butter business of police, fire and military continues to grow every year. Hopefully in five years we will be licensed with most if not all major pro sports leagues (several in the works now). We have been approached and asked to do a licensing agreement with a sports team that has the largest following of any team in the world, a larger following than many complete leagues. We are excited about the prospects there. I look forward to continuing to enjoy my retirement from the fire department while being able to stay in touch with many of those groups through the coins. The challenge coin business has taken me to New York, Washington D.C., Arlington VA, Las Vegas, Denver, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Chicago, Sydney, Australia and more in the last 3 years…at every one of those stops I get to catch up with old friends and make new ones. If that all continues I’ll be happy.

Learn more about Adrenaline Challenge Coins at their website. And like their page.