My name is Jay Moore, aka “Bama,” and this is the story about how Team Bama came to be in Lubbock, Texas.

In 2020 the Coronavirus hit Lubbock, Texas, very hard; many people were losing their loved ones. One night I was at home browsing Amazon.com and came across the Grinch costume. I thought I would buy it to scare my kids. Little did I know it was the start of something great. I couldn’t find the keys to my car, so I hopped on my motorcycle in full Grinch attire, and everyone started flashing their lights and honking horns for me to stop and get a picture! I pulled over, and before long, there stood a line of people waiting for photo ops.

Later, I walked into Walmart to get a couple of items with the Grinch costume on, and people started handing me money to take a picture with me! Later I called up my buddy, Mark, and asked him if he would dress up as Santa Claus and ride around town with me. Well, that’s just what we did.

Soon, schools, daycares, and businesses invited us to visit. I would get so caught up in the character that I would start dancing until Mark reminded me that the Grinch was supposed to be mean, so at that point, I started shaking Christmas tree ornaments off Christmas trees, and before I knew it, I was knocking them over, and people laughed and laughed!

People who knew I was the Grinch asked me to come to their house, knock over their Christmas tree, and take their gifts from under the tree because the kids were being bad! We decided to start collecting gifts as donations to give back to the community to the kids or families in need of Christmas gifts.  I had no idea what I was going to do next, so I hopped on Amazon.com and came up with the idea of getting another costume, and that’s how it all came about. We gave money donated to families that needed help paying bills. Before I knew it, other people wanted to join and become a part of what we were doing. 

In 2021, our members decided to go with the name “Team Grinch,” which worked very well for Christmas, but after Christmas, we wanted people to know that we were still around, so the team members voted on the name Team Bama. I was totally against the name, but they insisted on letting everyone know the person behind it. 

And that is the story of Team Bama!