Hockey is not my native sport.
You see where I’m from – Indiana – we melt the snow and ice in our backyards and driveways so that we can shoot hoops all winter long. And then, during the summer, we squeeze in some of America’s Pastime, while the hardwood or blacktop is being resurfaced.
But hockey, nah, not really my thing.
Sure, we had the Fort Wayne Komets in our backyard and we’d go to games occasionally, but it was a sport I simply didn’t understand nor did my father or mother or anyone in my extended family that I can recall.
So when we moved to suburban Detroit during my 11th year, I was going to need to become a quick study. Afterall, our new home was in St. Clair Shores which billed itself as “Hockeytown USA” long before the Detroit Red Wings co-opted the moniker. Two years later, a SCS kid – Mark Wells – was beating the Soviet Union in what is still probably the most-watched hockey game in the history of the United States.
And yes, I too was glued to my television the evening of February 22, 1980, for ABC’s tape-delayed broadcast of that miracle on ice.
If I wasn’t a hockey fan by then I certainly was afterward.
So when curating a list of 80 iconic events and/or venues to visit during my Around the World in 80 Sporting Events project, a visit to the Hockey Hall of Fame was never in doubt. While my hockey fandom only dates to the late 1970s, I can still appreciate a museum that honors its past while celebrating its future.
That my visit to the Hockey Hall came directly on the heels of my time in Cooperstown, NY, at the Baseball Hall of Fame is a bit of divine providence. I’ve always contended these two shrines hit all the right notes in honoring their nation’s most historically significant sport.
I’m going to give the Hockey Hall the same treatment as I did for Baseball. A few photos that sparked some recollections of my time as a fan. You’ll be able to see the rest of the photographs and video on the full page for Event No. 27 which is found here.
Grand Palaces
From left, artifacts from the Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, Detroit’s Olympia Stadium, and Chicago Stadium.
For the hockey unfamiliar, the NHL was comprised, originally, by six franchises (the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs) for 25 seasons (1942-67). These sextet became collectively known, historically, as “The Original Six.”
Each of the Original Six played in grand old palaces (or barns if that’s your style) that are given proper recognition in the Hall’s hallowed halls. Of those six, amazingly I was was able to see hockey played in three of them: Chicago Stadium, Detroit’s Olympia Stadium, and Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens. Here are my memories of each:
- Chicago Stadium – My memory is haziest about this one, but I believe it was circa 1991-92 season and the Blackhawks opponent was the post-Gretzky and Messier Edmonton Oilers. My lasting memory is of the famous Barton pipe organ and Wayne Messmer‘s singing of the “Star-Spangled Banner.” There was a Chicago fan in the stands who white-knuckled a railing, veins popping in this neck, and screamed the anthem in conjunction with Messmer.
- Olympia Stadium – My first-ever NHL game was the Atlanta Flames at Detroit Red Wings on January 20, 1979. It was the final full season of Olympia and I recall being seated in the upper level that featured steep seating and incredibly sticky floors. My 11-year-old self had issues lifting his feet off the floor in the seating area to move, it was so sticky.
- Maple Leaf Gardens – My buddy Wayne was working at the now-defunct Sport Detroit Magazine in 1988 and one of his assignments was a feature story on the Red Wings’ recently acquired winger, Miroslav Frycer, who’d previously defected from the former Czechoslovakia and played for a time for the Maple Leafs and Coach John Brophy. Wayne had requested, and received, a pair of press passes for a Red Wings-Maple Leafs preseason game in Toronto. He invited me to join and we had seats in the press box which was in a gondola high above the ice. Afterward, Wayne went to the press scrum with Brophy to ask about Frycer and received the following quote: “#&*% Mirsolav Frycer!” And that was the end of the interview. We got in Wayne’s car and drove four hours back to Michigan.
Paul Kariya, University of Maine
I was the beat writer for the University of Michigan Wolverines’ hockey team for two full seasons, 1991-92 and 1992-93.
The M-Icers, as they were sometimes referred to by a certain sportswriter, were on the ascent during this era. Head Coach Red Berenson, himself a former Wolverine, decided to forego professional coaching where he won the NHL Coach of the Year honor in 1980-81 season with the St. Louis Blues, to set up shop in Ann Arbor and rebuild the Wolverines. It took longer than he’d have liked, but in Berenson’s seventh year the team reached the NCAA Hockey Championships where it advanced to the quarterfinals. The next year it reached the Frozen Four as it did the year after that (my final year on the beat).
The Frozen Four in 1993 was in Milwaukee and Michigan’s opponent in the semifinals was the University of Maine Black Bears which was rated No. 1 the entire season. Leading the charge for Maine – a team loaded with talent – was a hotshot freshman from British Columbia named Paul Kariya. Just 18-years-old during the season his on-ice skills were unequaled. He finished the the year with 100 points, scoring 25 goals and assisting on 75 others in just 39 games en route to winning the Hobey Baker Award.
Maine won that game 4-3 in overtime – and the championship two nights later against Lake Superior State – to claim its first-ever NCAA title and finish the season 42-1-2. It’s considered by many to be the greatest college hockey season in history.
Less-than-a-year later I saw Kariya again, on my television, as a player for Team Canada in the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics where Canada lost 3-2 in a shootout to Sweden for the Gold Medal. Kariya’s shootout attempt was stopped in the seventh round by Swedish goalie, Tommy Salo, allowing Sweden the victory.
I then watched him for the next 15 years in the NHL with the Ducks, Colorado Avalanche, Nashville Predators, and St. Louis Blues. He was a 2-time Lady Byng Memorial Trophy recipient (most sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of play) and a 2017 inductee in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
He was the first hockey player I could say, “I saw play back when they were just starting out.”
“I was just trying to capture the spirit of the moment.”
I noted that I spent two-plus seasons on the University of Michigan hockey beat for the Ann Arbor News.
While the hockey team was on the rise during my era on the beat, it was certainly no U-M football or basketball team in terms of media coverage, so we who trudged up the staircase to the pressbox high atop Yost Ice Arena each weekend were a close-knit group.
And because we were fairly well removed from the spectators, we found a certain level of, shall I say, latitude with the conversations we were able to engage in. One of our go-tos during this era was almost a choral recitation of scenes from the minor league hockey-based cult movie classic, Slap Shot. Though I’m not sure any movie starring Paul Newman could be considered a cult classic, it sure as shootin’ wasn’t mainstream any longer. The fact that it had been released in the theaters 15 years earlie meant that most of us in the press box had only seen it on VHS tapes.
Anyhow, one of us with mutter a line from the movie and away we’d go with the scene.
Our favorite, of course, was Dickie Dunn (played by M. Emmet Walsh), the local sportswriter whose go-to line was always, “I tried to capture the spirit of the moment.”
I’m willing to bet that by me writing: “I am personally placing a hundred-dollar bounty on the head of Tim McCracken. He’s the head coach and chief punk on that Syracuse team.”
Someone reading this will be able to complete the scene with broadcaster Jim Carr’s line and the response from player/coach Reg Dunlop (Newman’s character).
A Golden Moment
Beyond the USA-Soviet 1980 Lake Place Olympic semifinal, perhaps one of the greatest hockey games I ever watched was the Gold Medal Game between the host Canadians and the USA in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Team USA won the pool play match, 5-3, and forced Canada to take the long road to the Medal Round. The rematch was a beauty. Canada jumped out to a 2-0 lead by the midpoint of the second period before the United States got on the board later that frame. With the U.S. goalie, Ryan Miller, pulled Zach Parise scored an equalizer with 25 seconds left in the third period to force overtime.
That’s when a kid named Sidney Crosby scored 7:40 into the extra session to walk it off … a Golden Goal as it was.
During my Conversation with Mike “Doc” Emrick, he said this was his most memorable moment on the microphone as he called the game for NBC Sports.
If it was good enough for Doc, well, it’s good enough for me.
Doc Emrick in the Hall
During the past three-plus years I’ve hosted my podcast, Conversations with Sports Fans, I’ve published 225 episodes as of this writing. Along the way, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with all variety of sports fans and/or folks connected with the sports industry. Hands down, however, I was never more anxious/nervous/eager/worried (choose the descriptor of your choosing) than I was when my old pal, Ken Kal, was able to put me in touch with Doc Emrick.
To me, a relative newbie to the world of hockey, Emrick is hockey broadcasting royalty. His equivalencies across the broadcast spectrum in the U.S. would be the likes of Bob Costas, Jim Nantz, Verne Lundquist, or Brent Musburger. All icons in their own right.
He was, as some say in the business, a big get.
He afforded me a half-hour of his time and as we began our chat it became apparent he was a bit off. He had a tickle in his throat and a scratchy cough he could not shake. It seemed he scheduled the bulk of his media appearances on the same day of the month and I came near the end of several hours of speaking. His voice was fading and, as he profusely apologized, he let me know he wouldn’t be able to continue.
I was, understandably, crushed. However, no sooner did he say he’d need to go, he also gave me three possible dates for a re-recording. We found one that worked for both of us and he could not have been a more generous guest who leaned into what I’ve always tried to do at Conversations … learn how my guest became a sports fan and take them on a journey through their lifetime highlights.
And let me tell you, Doc Emrick has some highlights!
He was my first and, hopefully, not my last Hall of Fame honoree from the four major North American sports. So, yeah, I lingered a bit longer in front of his glass plate recognizing him as the Hockey Hall’s 2008 Foster Hewitt Award Recipient.
If you’ve not yet listened to the Doc Emrick Conversation, I invite you to do so at this link. It’s a half hour well spent.
A Final Look
