Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Shoots and Scores
Page 30
How Fox TV invented a puck that had a red tail to help hockey fans follow the bouncing disc in televised games.
Areason often listed for U.S. sports fans having little interest in hockey is that the puck is too small and too difficult for casual fans to follow. Canadian hockey supporters, the majority of the population north of the 49th parallel, figure that’s goofy. Consider the size of a golf ball in comparison to a hockey puck and the size of a golf course compared to a hockey rink and it’s a wonder any Americans watch that game.
WHY NOT THE HISTORY OF MANKIND?
In 1996, the Fox Television Network, which was trying to interest more U.S. fans in hockey, decided to make the puck easier to see. The result was “Foxtrax,” the puck with the bright red tail that Fox called “the greatest innovation in the history of sports.” Most Canadian fans who had the Fox network on their cable program thought it was “the silliest backward step in sports history.”
EXPENSIVE LITTLE DEVILS
The pucks Fox created cost $50,000 each, which meant network employees had to be quick to the scene when one went over the boards into a fan’s grasp. There was a blue glow around the puck on the TV screen and when it traveled any distance, the “puckman” in the control truck would hit a switch that saw the disc followed by a red tail. To create the more visible disc, a normal rubber puck was cut in half like a bagel and electronic transmitters plus tiny batteries inserted in it and the pieces glued back together. Sensors were placed around the rink to track the wonder puck. The puck’s power lasted approximately ten minutes, then it was replaced, the used one recharged.
MAYBE IT WAS THE RISE IN THE PRICE OF GLUE
The glowing, flashing puck was introduced at the 1995–96 NHL All-Star Game and for a few weeks, Fox claimed the response to the gadget was positive. But when the next season rolled around, the puck was back to good old basic black rubber, always frozen to reduce the bounce before it is used. Fox claimed that it wasn’t the cost of the electronic trinket or the adverse reaction among true hockey fans. In fact, the network didn’t really give good reasons for junking the “greatest innovation in the history of sports.”
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“I think the game has gotten better. (The two-ref system) keeps players from taking cheap shots behind the play. I never thought I’d like it, considering the way I like to hack.”
—center Brian Skrudland on the new two-referee system
“I don’t know if Anna (Kournikova) told him to get tougher or what.”
—Dallas captain Mike Modano, on Detroit’s Sergei Fedorov breaking three sticks on Dallas players
“It felt like a golf swing and my head was on the tee.”
—Blue Jackets center Tyler Wright,
on being clubbed by right wing Joe Murphy
“The Russians are the dirtiest players I’ve ever seen.”
—Bobby Clarke, April 1976 (four years after breaking
Valery Kharlamov’s ankle with a slash)
“For the most part, with the possible exception of me, I don’t think anybody goes out to try to hurt somebody.”
—Jeremy Roenick,
former Chicago Blackhawks forward
“All the other players had to test us. We were just chicken hockey players from Europe. For a couple of years, it was chicken Swede this, and chicken Swede that. I never hear it any more. A few elbows took care of that.”
—Borje Salming,
former Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman
MILLION DOLLAR “M”
The Black Hawks offered a million for Frank Mahovlich when a joke turned serious at an All-Star Game party.
The NHL All-Star Game matched the Stanley Cup champion Toronto Maple Leafs against the league’s best players in Toronto in October 1962. After the glittering dinner the evening before the game, team owners and executives met in a hospitality suite for a drink or two. Chicago Black Hawks owner Jim Norris, an influential NHL governor, decided to test the new owners of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Leafs’ founder Conn Smythe had sold the team to a group headed by his son Stafford, Harold Ballard and Toronto publisher John Bassett.
NORRIS’ TRY FOR DYNASTY
After a long stretch as NHL doormats, the Hawks were among the elite teams—winners of the Stanley Cup in 1961—led by Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita, Pierre Pilote, and Glenn Hall. The Leafs had climbed to the top, too, with a strong reconstruction and an assortment of young stars including Dave Keon, Carl Brewer and “The Big M,” Frank Mahovlich. Much all-star weekend talk concerned Mahovlich’s problems in reaching an agreement with the Leafs on a new contract. During their party talk, when Stafford Smythe and Ballard mentioned their bank loan to buy the Leafs, Norris suggested a method of reducing it. He offered one million dollars for winger Mahovlich, a 48-goal-scorer in 1960–61.
TRUST BALLARD…
Those within earshot regarded it as a joke when Norris and Ballard shook hands on the “deal” and the Black Hawks owner gave Ballard a $1,000 bill as a deposit. Gord Campbell, a sports writer for the Toronto Star who was at the party at Ballard’s invitation, wrote the story as a serious offer by the Hawks and when the paper hit the streets the next morning, reaction was enormous.
NORRIS LEARNS ABOUT LEAFS
Norris met a hastily summoned banker and dispatched Hawks general manager Tommy Ivan to Maple Leaf Gardens with a certified cheque for $1M. But by the time he reached the Leafs executive offices, the Leaf owners had changed their minds. Conn Smythe convinced his son that the deal was bad for hockey and would hurt the team’s credibility. Stafford Smythe announced that the Big M was not for sale at any price. Norris claimed the Leafs had backed out of a legitimate deal.
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MUSIC TO MY EARS
Hockey has been the inspiration for some very fine song writing. Here are some of the best.
“The Hockey Song” by Stompin’ Tom Connors. No game would be complete without it: “Oh, the good old hockey game, is the best game you can name.” Enough said.
“Hockey” by Jane Siberry. You can’t beat this mellifluous ode to Sunday afternoon hockey on a “frozen river.”
“Hit Somebody! (The Hockey Song)” by Warren Zevon—a heartfelt appreciation of hockey’s goons and grinders.
“Slapshot Love” by The Zambonis, the ultimate hockey band sings the ultimate hockey love song (“skating on the blue line, that’s when I saw your green light.”)
“The Zamboni Song” by the Gear Daddies. “Now ever since I was young it’s been my dream/That I might drive a Zamboni machine.” Don’t we all?
“Fifty Mission Cap” by the Tragically Hip tells the tragic story of Maple Leaf Bill Barilko, who died in a plane crash on a fishing trip in 1951.
ALL BETS ARE OFF
Gambling scandals have been putting the NHL in the penalty box since hockey’s early days.
THE MAPLE LEAF BULL RING
Gambler: Walter “Babe” Pratt, New York Ranger, Toronto Maple Leaf, and league MVP
Story: Walter “Babe” Pratt, a native of Manitoba, went pro in 1936 after joining the Rangers, and then moved on to the Maple Leafs in 1942. In 1944 he became the winner of the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player. That season, Pratt set records for defencemen with 57 points in just 50 games and the most assists in a game. In 1945 his winning shot gave Toronto the Stanley Cup. But Toronto was also where Pratt made his greatest mistake.
Babe Pratt was a big guy (about 6’3” and 200 pounds) with a larger than life personality. Gregarious and fun-loving, he worried his coaches with too much drinking, womanizing, and gambling. In 1946 officials realized that a betting circle was thriving in Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens and that one of its instigators was Pratt, and they suspected he was making use of it to bet on his own team, the Maple Leafs.
Downfall: In a move that shocked fans, the league expelled the hockey great “for life.” Pratt went to see NHL president Mervyn “Red” Dutton where he admitted his mistakes but claimed never to have fixed a game. He apologized and promised to change hi
s ways. It worked. Dutton shortened Pratt’s expulsion to a 16-day suspension, and the first player ever censured by the NHL for gambling ultimately made it to the Hockey Hall of Fame.
TWO BRUINS OUT
Gamblers: Boston Bruins Don Gallinger and William “Billy the Kid” Taylor
Story: In 1947 the NHL suffered a gambling scandal that began over a card game. Don Gallinger, a hockey prodigy, was just 17 years old when Boston brought him into the NHL in 1942. Gallinger had been the Bruins leading scorer in 1946, taking them to the Stanley Cup finals. Gallinger’s opponent at cards was a newcomer to the Bruins, William “Billy the Kid” Taylor, who won the Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1942. In 1947 he set an NHL record for the most assists in a game (he now shares the record with Wayne Gretzky).
One evening, Taylor told Gallinger that he could double his $7,500 salary through a friendly Detroit bookie named James Tamer. The scam went like this: Gallinger and Taylor would bet against themselves when they knew that—because of injuries, or tough opposition—they were bound to lose anyway. They wouldn’t actually be throwing games, just taking advantage of inevitable losses.
Downfall: Whether it was to support his bets or not, Taylor played poorly for the Bruins and was traded to the New York Rangers in February 1948. That same month, their bookie Tamer (who, it turned out, was also a paroled bank robber and career criminal) was under investigation by the Detroit police and his phone had been wiretapped. The wiretap picked up the following conversation:
TAMER: How are things tonight?
VOICE: Don't worry about the game tonight. One of the players is sick…and I don't intend to do so good. Bet $500 for me.
Further investigation by the NHL revealed that the “voice” belonged to Gallinger. The police also heard Tamer call Taylor, who placed a similar bet. Oddly, despite his wager, Gallinger gave his all during that game and almost single-handedly turned the expected loss into a win. It didn’t help him. On March 9, 1948, the league expelled Taylor for “conduct prejudicial to and against the welfare of hockey.” Gallinger, who’d proclaimed his innocence, was also suspended pending further investigation. Eventually, both of them confessed. Taylor accepted his banishment, but Gallinger, only 22 years old at the time, continued to ask for clemency. His pleas fell on deaf ears…until 1970 when the league finally reinstated the pair. The 50-year-old Taylor became a scout for the Washington Capitals, but Gallinger never returned to the NHL.
OPERATION SLAPSHOT HITS THE COYOTES
Gamblers: New Jersey State Trooper James J. Harney and Phoenix Coyote’s assistant coach, Rick Tocchet
Story: In February 2006, the NHL fell victim to Operation Slapshot, a New Jersey state police investigation of a gambling, money laundering, and conspiracy ring that had processed more than 1,000 bets totaling more than $1.7 million on pro and collegiate sports. The main participants accused of running the ring were New Jersey State Trooper James J. Harney and Phoenix Coyote’s assistant coach, Rick Tocchet.
Once upon a time, Tocchet had been a tough, power forward who helped the Philadelphia Flyers reach the Stanley Cup finals in 1985, his rookie year, and come within a game of winning the Cup two years later. After a successful career with six NHL teams, he was coaching the Coyotes as an assistant to Coach Wayne Gretzky when the gambling investigation began.
Downfall: According to the police, Tocchet and Harney led the ring, based in New Jersey, and placed bets on football and basketball games, but not on hockey. Still, Tocchet’s connection to hockey hero Gretzky made for big headlines—especially after police accused Tocchet of placing bets for Gretzky’s wife, Janet Jones.
In 2007 Tocchet apologized to the court and the public for his involvement, and pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and gambling promotion. He received two-year probation and no jail time. Tocchet was also suspended from the NHL for three months. He returned to the Coyotes in 2008, and went on to coach the Tampa Bay Lightning.
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WELCOME BACK, WINNIPEG!
The city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, had a perfectly serviceable NHL team in the Winnipeg Jets from 1979 until 1996, when the team was yanked away from them to become the Phoenix (Arizona) Coyotes. Well, that crime against hockey has finally been reversed, and, as of the 2011–12 season, the Winnipeg Jets are once again in the NHL. All of us at the BRI wish the city and team a hearty “Welcome back!” and the best of luck in the future.
THE MANY SIDES OF TIE
Most fans will remember the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Tie Domi as one thing: a fighter. Turns out there was more to him than meets the (black) eye.
FIGHTING MACHINE
For Tie Domi, toughness was in his genes. When his father John was escaping his homeland (the totalitarian Albania in the 1950s), he was shot right above the eye. John Domi never had the bullet fragment removed from his skull, keeping it as a reminder of why he moved to Canada. Tie himself was the youngest of three children, and he had to be tough to keep up with his older brother and his friends who played a lot of rough, physical sports. Tie developed into a tenacious hockey player and was eventually drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1988. Despite his relatively modest size—he was listed as 5’10”, but Domi himself admits that’s a generous estimate—he soon developed a reputation as a fighter who was willing to drop the gloves with anyone. During a game in 2001, he even took the opportunity to pummel a Flyers’ fan in Philadelphia who was unfortunate enough to fall into a penalty box with Domi in it.
By the end of his NHL career, which ended after the 2005–06 season, Domi had accumulated enough time in the penalty box to put him at third overall in the list of all-time NHL penalty minute leaders. But Mr. Domi is not a one-dimensional man.
ANOTHER SIDE OF TIE
Domi was a skilled high school athlete growing up in Windsor, Ontario, so skilled that the University of Michigan athletics department scouted him for both soccer and football. And though he chose hockey in the end, Domi remained active in those other two sports. In the summer of 1995, he played a season with the Canadian International Soccer League, and in 1996 and 1997, he kicked field goals and extra points in preseason games for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION!
Being an NHL enforcer requires a taste for the spotlight and a flare for the dramatic, and Domi capitalized on these aspects of his personality, appearing in two films in 1999. He played himself in Mystery, Alaska, a hockey comedy starring future Oscar-winner Russell Crowe. Domi also tested his acting chops playing “Pete” in the independent mob movie, Men of Means.
In 2009 Domi put his skates back on for the short-lived CBC reality TV series, Battle of the Blades (basically, a figure-skating version of Dancing with the Stars). Domi was partnered with Canadian national figure-skating pairs champion Christine Hough-Sweeney (an appropriate pairing, considering Hough-Sweeney was nicknamed “Tuffy” for her competitive drive). The duo didn’t win the competition, but they did place higher than Canadian ice dancer Kristina Lenko and her partner, Domi’s longtime NHL fighting rival Bob Probert.
A FIGHTER…AND A LOVER?
Although his NHL career came to an end in 2006, Domi remained in the media spotlight after his wife Leanne filed for divorce, saying she’d noticed that Tie had taken a more than passing interest in the political career of Belinda Stronach, an auto-parts heiress and Liberal candidate for Member of Parliament. “This was a very big surprise,” Leanne said. “Tie had little to no interest in politics and hadn’t the slightest idea about the ideological difference between the candidates.” Neither Stronach nor Domi ever admitted to the alleged affair publicly.
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YOU LITTLE THIEVES…
In January 2008, Swedish police issued a public warning to bus travelers: Look out for little people in hockey equipment bags. Police agencies told newspapers that a team of thieves had been putting little people inside hockey bags, which they then put into busses’ cargo holds. During transit the little thieves woul
d exit the bags and loot other passengers’ luggage.
NUDE HOCKEY NEWS
You won’t find this on SportsCenter.
THREE YOUNG WOMEN hopped over the boards and onto the ice during a New York Islanders–Vancouver Canucks game in 1974. They were wearing running shoes, plastic glasses, fake noses…and that’s all. They ran around for a while, jumped back into the stands, and headed for an exit. Police said it must have been a carefully planned streaking event, as the women simply vanished after that, most likely into a waiting car.
A WOMAN IN MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO, was watching a hockey game at a local rink in 2004 when she lifted up her shirt and, according to media reports, “shook her breasts back and forth” at the fans of the opposing team. (She was wearing a bra.) The woman was later banned from attending games at the rink for one year. Bonus: It was a kid’s-league hockey game. The players were 11 years old…and one of them was the woman’s son.
THE SAN JOSE SHARKS’ Ben Eager was in the penalty box during a 2011 playoff game against the Vancouver Canucks, when a female Canucks fan stood up near the glass surrounding the box, got Eager’s attention, smiled at him, lifted her shirt, and pressed her breasts against the glass. CBC cameras happened to be on Eager—and the woman—at the time and stayed there for a full six seconds before finally cutting away. Eager said the next day that he “got a few text messages with the picture after the game.”
IN OCTOBER 2009 police in Boise, Idaho, banned a group of teenage boys from an outdoor ice rink after people complained they were playing hockey naked. The boys confessed that they had been playing “strip hockey.”
DURING A 2002 Boston Bruins–Calgary Flames game, a man climbed over the glass, jumped onto the ice, slipped, fell, hit his head, and was knocked out…while wearing only red socks. The streaker, 21-year-old Timothy Hurlburt, was on the ice for several minutes before being taken off on a stretcher. He was released from the hospital the next day, but later charged with mischief.