When Coughlin Cars donated a brand new custom yellow Crew-styled Camaro to be given away at Crew Stadium, there was only one question left to answer: who would drive the car around until the giveaway?
For anyone close to the organization, the answer was obvious.
Who better to put behind the wheel of a Camaro than the high-energy, high-speed and hard-working Frankie Hejduk? The former rightback, who played for the Crew from 2003-10 and was part of the organization’s first MLS Cup championship, is in his second season as the club’s Brand Ambassador.
For the last several months, he has been performing his duties behind the wheel of the shiny Crew Camaro provided by Coughlin Cars.
Things have never gone better.
“It really gave me an opportunity to see how many Crew fans we have out there because if I’m just driving around in a normal car, unless you see my hair flowing in the wind you don’t really know that we’re out and about,” he said. “This was a perfect opportunity for people to start noticing that we’re everywhere.”
Hejduk was able to generate a buzz wherever he went by using social media to send out pictures of where the car was located. He also spread the Crew name beyond the Columbus city limits, travelling to events all around the state of Ohio.
He filmed several episodes of “Crewzin’ with Frankie” for TheCrew.com and held “Find Frankie” contests where he gave away tickets to fans who were able to find him by following the clues he gave on social media.
The only negative came when Hejduk received a speeding ticket for “Crewzin’” a little too fast on his way back to Columbus in the muscle car.
“That thing jams,” he said. “It’s a fast car. Obviously, I wasn’t used to that and I didn’t know how to use the cruise control.
“Typically, I’m a ‘Crewzin’’ type of driver, but on this particular day I was coming home from a clinic that we did in Dayton and I guess I was ‘Crewzin’’ a little bit too freely.”
It might just have been that Hejduk was trying to get away from all the people that were chasing him in the eye-catching ride. By the end of the “Find Frankie” giveaways, the Crew legend found himself having to hide the car in order to send all three clues before he was found.
Still, Hejduk enjoyed the attention that was generated for the Crew and Coughlin Cars and is sad to have to give up the keys. One can only hope that the winner has as much fun behind the wheel as he did.
