Omaha is a city of richly diverse communities, meaning that if you look, you’ll find your people. Thus, we find ourselves inches from a battlefield, where an auto salvager is dueling a hospital pharmacy tech. Their swords clash, their 20-pound helmets weigh heavy on their necks, and they are locked in a brutal competition. They’re good friends, so it will end well. Better for one than the other—but with minimal blood shed and bruised shins and chins—but never egos.
This is the competitive world of Medieval Armored Combat, or “Buhurt,” as it’s known to practitioners. The word comes from the old French, béhourd, which translates as “to wallop.” As competitors come down hard on their opponents with their maces and longswords, the word functions as onomatopoeia. While the growing sport connects fighters from various walks of life to one another’s stories, it’s also connecting them with centuries of history filled with rituals, traditions, and honor.
“A lot of what we’re wearing is pretty true to history,” said Omaha Hell Hounds Co-Captain Alex Kerwin. “This is real steel and leather armor, and weapons are blunted, but it’s still a really brutal sport.”
“When Omaha’s team was first created, we were led by a Marine, and he named us the ‘Devil Dogs,’” said Co-Captain Brandon Riggle. “It was a term the Germans gave the Marines during World War II. After our leader left, we didn’t feel right maintaining the Marine moniker, so we changed our name to the Omaha Hell Hounds, but we were determined to maintain a lot of the heraldry and traditions we were kind of born into.”
These traditions include fighting for good. The team holds events hosted and sponsored by Nebraska Brewing Company and donates the proceeds to various charities. The Hell Hounds do what they can to continue to promote causes for military veterans and are proud supporters of 22 Heartbeats, which provides mental, physical, and financial support to those who have served. The organization, run by veterans for veterans, offers mental health services and transitional housing to retired service members, who suffer a disproportionate rate of homelessness and suicidal ideations.
“We aren’t military, but we wanted to continue to show support and keep honoring our roots,” said Co-Captain Avery Moomey, who discovered the sport after walking away from Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).
“I got into MMA because I wanted a workout that was more exciting than lifting weights,” Moomey said. “I get bored so quickly and need people to train and compete with. I had known a member of Omaha’s former team, The Ravens. They were a team back in 2012 when the armored combat leagues first started up here. I would see his posts and videos about it. I messaged the team one day and said ‘Hey, are you still practicing?’ The first day I showed up, I met Brandon.”
Kerwin found his way to Buhurt a little later in the game, in part thanks to another fascination. “I popped in around 2021. I was reading a zombie apocalypse book, and we had just come out of the big COVID lockdowns,” he recalled. “I thought it would be good to know how to protect myself in…not necessarily a zombie apocalypse, but that was kind of the catalyst. I started in July, but I didn’t officially fight until April of 2022. There are a lot of regulations and protocols, and it took me a while to build up my full armor.”
“It does take time to build your armor, and it can be pretty intimidating at first. But that’s what’s so great about this community,” said Riggle. “There’s always someone willing to lend their gear when they’re not in battle. And once someone gets armored up and they step into a fight, they’re locked in. It’s this weird addiction, you get this tunnel vision when you’re fighting. And not just because of the restricted view from the helmet…”
The team’s newest fighter, Jake Addleman, has been learning the hard way—although in this sport, it doesn’t seem like there is any other way.
“I’ve been with the team since just before March. I came in thinking, ‘Man, I hope I don’t mess this up.’ It was empowering and nerve wracking at the same time, and I finally told myself, ‘You can’t mess up getting hit in the head.’ Then after the initial adrenaline wore off, all of the training these guys had put me through finally just clicked, and it was so much fun. Now I can’t get enough of it, I want to constantly get hit in the head.”
“We’ve formed the strangest bond, just having fun and beating the crap out of each other,” Riggle said. “It’s a really fine line, because naturally, nobody wants to be in a fight. It’s a huge confidence builder to know how to fight and to see that you’re about to get hit by someone almost twice your size in a melee and know that you have the skills to move past the fear of pain and to put your knowledge into practice.”
To learn more, join the battle, or donate to causes close to the Hell Hounds’ hearts, visit omahahellhounds.com.
This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
