Good grief. If it weren't for Archie Bennitz, I wouldn't have even known there was a National Hockey League work stoppage. Bennitz got some ink today even though he's dead. He directed a son to use his newspaper obituary to blast NHL and players' union officials for coming to loggerheads and depriving him of televised hockey.
I used to be a great hockey fan back in the 60s, growing up in Chicago. The first time my dad took me into Chicago Stadium, long since torn down and replaced by something called United Center, I thought I was in a magic kingdom. To see Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita (Blackhawks greats) and Gordie Howe (Red Wings), was immense. So was the hulking machine that smoothed the ice in between periods; it was called a Zamboni. I wrote to all the Blackhawks, even the benchwarmers, for autographed pictures, and they sent them to me. Opening the mailbox at 5421 S. Cornell Ave. every day after school was pretty exciting there for awhile. They're probably still in a shoebox somewhere back in Chicago, maybe worth some dough on e-Bay now.
Back then, the league was six teams: Chicago, Detroit, New York, Boston, Montreal and Toronto. Like all professional sports in the U.S., hockey was undermined by hooliganism and runaway expansionism.
Not to mention absurd ticket prices. As Bennitz's son David told CBC Ottawa:
When he saw the price of tickets, he could never believe that people would actually pay $100 to sit at a hockey game, or how they could afford it, David says."Considering he was someone who worked hard his whole life, lived through the Depression, World War Two ... he couldn't see someone having that much money to pay to see hockey."
What gets me, apart from ticket prices for all pro sports, is there are so many teams in all the leagues that the playoffs are almost as long as the season.
Archie Bennitz still loved hockey anyway, and may his soul rest in peace.
Myself, I'd rather go skating.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 21, 2005 02:42 PM
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Did you ever see the Peanuts special that featured Woodstock driving a Zamboni? Hilarious.
As for ice skating - I learned to ice skate at the same time I learned how to walk (in Idaho). Ice skating stopped when my family moved to Virginia when I was six. My next opportunity came when I was 22 - I was big enough to borrow my dad's old skates and they fit perfectly. I guess something comes from learning at such an early age. Sixteen years off of ice skates didn't matter - it all came back to me before I had finished lacing up.
Posted by: Jeff at January 21, 2005 05:36 PM