Frank Martin Halloween masks flying off shelves

OTTAWA – Halloween is fully of scary characters, but according to Larry Steinsfield’s customers, no one is scarier than Frank Martin, men’s basketball coach at Kansas State University.

Steinsfield, who manages two Targets in Kansas, including the Target in Ottawa, said his store cannot keep rubber masks of Martin’s face in the store, despite three reorders.

“It’s the first thing people ask for. Apparently, his face is terrifying,” said Steinsfield, 53, adding Martin’s mask moved places on the shelves early in the costume-buying season. “At first, we had him among the celebrities, like Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, Kate Gosselin, and Dwight Schrute. But people kept going to our horror section looking for the mask. So it’s now between Freddy Kruger and that guy from the Saw movies. And, by looking at the face, it makes more sense there.”

The idea of a Frank Martin mask came from Rick Georgio, who heads up marketing for Scare-Me, Inc., a Los Angeles-based company that manufactures rubber masks. Georgio, who grew up in Oklahoma, said he was watching Martin coach the Kansas State Wildcats against his alma matter, Oklahoma State, when inspiration struck. A call had gone against Kansas State and Martin’s eyes bulged from his head before he erupted in a screaming fit against one of his players.

“I had it on DVR, and I kept replaying it and watching over and over again. Every once in while I’d stop it just as he’s about to explode,” said Georgio. “There’s so much intensity in that face. You can almost see the veins pop out of his head. It really looked like he was about to murder someone. My wife made me stop doing it because it was really freaking her out. She ended up having a nightmare about it.”

Georgio’s bosses at Scare-Me were initially skeptical about manufacturing a rubber mask of the coach of a second-rate basketball team. But after a quick viewing of a Frank Martin explosion on the sidelines, they quickly agreed to give it a trial run. Within three days of the masks hitting the shelves, the company was getting requests for more product, prompting another printing of masks.

Because of Georgio’s inspiration, and Martin’s terrifying expressions, children and teenagers in the Kansas City area, and even beyond the Midwest, will don the mask to spook neighbors and friends. Even those who are clueless about the person who inspired the mask wear it with pride.

“He’s a coach?” asked Daryl Yarmin, 16, of Bentonville, Arkansas. “I thought he was a serial killer or some kind of high-ranking gangster. That face was so scary. I’d be afraid if I was a referee for that guy. He’d probably kill you if you made a bad call.”

For Steinsfield, the Frank Martin mask has been a blessing for sales, but as far as he’s concerned, it’s not the scariest mask on the shelves.

“The Frank Martin mask is scary. But he’s still no Kate Gosselin,” said Steinsfield. “That bitch makes my skin crawl.”